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Using mobiles 'more deadly than smoking'

A SENIOR lecturer at Salford University has claimed that regularly using a mobile phone could be more damaging to your health than smoking.

Simon Cassidy said he restricted his own mobile phone use, and discouraged his own children, aged nine and 11, from using them.

Mr Cassidy, senior lecturer at the university's directorate for psychology, said it will be 10 years before conclusive evidence is collected, but he added: "Using a mobile phone could be worse than smoking, but as the effects build up gradually, there will be no immediate effect."

"Only now, as prices come down, are people starting to use mobiles instead of landlines and can spend hours on the phone each day. The consequences of this are unknown," he said.

His comments came after the National Radiological Protection Board said there were significant concerns about the safety of mobile phones and that children should use mobile phones only in emergencies, and only for short periods of time.

Radiation

Fears centre on the amount of electromagnetic and RF radiation given off by phones, both of which can warm up parts of the brain. Young children are especially susceptible as their skulls are thinner.

Latest studies show that 25 per cent of primary school children carry a mobile phone, while 90 per cent of secondary school children have one.

The NRPB research cited studies across Europe that highlighted the dangers of mobile technology. One study, by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm concluded that those who regularly use mobile phones are twice as likely to get a benign tumour on the ear.

But the Mobile Phone Association, which represents Britain's biggest mobile phone operators, rejected the heath concerns.

Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell is calling for legal curbs on the location of mobile phone masts.

He has won the chance to promote a Private Members Bill in the Commons and he has chosen the issue of telecommunication masts and dangers to health.

He says that if the Bill is passed, it would stop companies putting up mobile phone masts without consulting local communities and getting planning approval from the local council.

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This is very lazy reporting. 2/10 for effort M.E.N

Simon Cassidy appears to be very knowledgeable on educational psychology, as shown on his online CV, but I cannot see how this confers him with an insight into how electromagnetic radioation interacts with brain processes or DNA. Perhaps a radiologist, physicist or biochemist would have been a better choice?

He states that 'the effects build up gradually, there will be no immediate effect' without saying what these effects may be, or how he knows that these effects exist.

Please try to check if your 'experts' are professionals in the field that they are commenting on, and ask them to make less ambigusous statements.

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This is, of course, rubbish

Mobile phone technology has been around for 10 years now, and police radios even longer.

No mass effect from their use has ever been recorded, although some may be more suscepitible to nonsense than others

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Can we have some discussion about cordless phones within the home too. Lots of people have them and they're also a radio transmitter next to your head. They never seem to get mentioned.

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MY HUSBAND USES A MOBILE PHONE EVERY DAY FOR WORK AND HE SUFFERS FROM VERY BAD HEADACHES AND DIZZIENESS WE ARE CONVINCED THIS IS FROM THE PHONE IF THEIR IS ANYONE WHO KNOWS HOW WE CAN GET THIS PROBLEM CHECKED COULD THEY LET ME KNOW

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The same old argument! Mobile phones bad for health. But now, as if by magic, mobiles are worse than smoking fags! Whatever. There are 2 types of radiation, Ironising and Non Ironising. Ironising is the sort a Microwave oven spews out (ie, it alters the physical state of water in matter), Non Ironising is the sort used in communications of all kinds. TV, Radio, Phones etc. Microwave ovens belt out a 1000 watts and they leak radiation like mad. No one wants to ban them. By comparison, a mobile bangs out about 2 watts. Minimal to say the least. With regards to experts, rubbish! If the body who commissions research are anti mobile, then the research they paid for will reflect the answers they want and visa versa. No such thing as unbiased research. The government wont do anything either other than sit on the fence. 42 Billion they raised when they sold 3G licenses, so are you telling me they would stop a multi billion pound industry because someones gets a headache (which they cant prove was caused by a mobile phone). Further to this, loads of people moan about the placing of the telcom sites, but loads of people who do moan have mobiles. Get rid of your hypocrisy, leave your jobs if you have to use a mobile. Never catch a taxi again (they use radio waves too), dont fly, dont watch TV and certainly dont use a Microwave oven. Then and only then can the ill informed have an opinion on radio, in which ever form it may come!

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