Cell phone radiation safety standards must be strengthened, claim 12 leading public health and consumer safety groups

Friday, September 20, 2013 by: Lloyd Burrell
Tags: cell phone radiation, safety standards, public health

(NaturalNews) Twelve leading public health and consumer groups are calling on the U.S. government to review the current outdated and inadequate wireless safety standards to better protect both young people and adults from electromagnetic field exposures (EMF) from devices like cell phones, cordless phones, WiFi and other wireless technologies.

Public health organizations are demanding that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) update its radiation standards to reflect current patterns of use and provide consumers with information about potential radiation exposure from cell phones and networks and that information at the point of sale of cell phones and similar devices be provided.

This initiative was signed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and 11 other public health organizations including: Breast Cancer Action, Breast Cancer Fund, Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Center for Environmental Health, Empire State Consumers Project, Healthy Child Healthy World, Product Policy Institute, Science and Environmental Health Network, and Teens Turning Green. The EWG also submitted to the FCC a 22 page document detailing extensive technical comments and outlining its concerns.

Existing safety standards outdated

Existing safety standards are now 17 years old. It was a different world back then. Few children owned or used a cell phone, smart phones didn't exist, and WiFi and similar technologies were virtually unheard of.

Today, things have moved on. In 2012, there were a reported 326 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. - 10 times more than in 1997. A recent survey suggests 78 percent of children between the ages of 12 to 17 now own a cell phone. Almost half of the phones being sold today are smartphones, and 35 percent of all households in the U.S. are now Wireless-only.

While cell phone radiation and similar exposures are a concern for everyone, the health effects of these exposures are particularly worrying for our children.

Children most at risk

Existing safety standards fail to take into account the fact that children's brains absorb cell phone radiation differently than adult brains. Research carried out in the 1990s indicates that:

• Children are exposed to higher levels of radiation from cell phones than adults.
  
• Children have thinner skulls and smaller ears than adults.
  
• The radiation has a shorter distance to travel from the phone to the brain.
  
• Every millimeter of separation counts.

Consequently, more radiation gets to a child's brain and so exposure is increased.

Existing guidelines based on erroneous assumptions

Existing U.S. standards for wireless/radio frequency exposures are based on the erroneous assumption that EMFs have no biological effects unless there's a heating effect. And yet numerous studies have disproven this myth time and time again. As a recent expert panel on the subject of cell phones & WiFi concluded, "this radiation may be 'non-thermal', but [it] has clear and indisputable biological and health effects.....the exposure guidelines fail to protect about 97 percent of the population, most especially children."

Even sources within the government err on the side of caution. A 2012 U.S. Government Accountability Office report called on the FCC to update its cell phone radiation exposure guidelines. The government agency said that current standards "may not reflect the latest research" and "may not identify maximum exposure [to radiation] in all possible usage conditions." The agency also went on to say that it does not test the use of phones held against the body, which "could result in [radio frequency] energy exposure higher than the FCC limit."

In the absence of sufficiently protective standards, it's down to each individual to take the necessary steps to safeguard his or her health. Caring for our children is an absolute priority.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.enewspf.com

http://electromagnetichealth.org

http://microwavenews.com

About the author:
Lloyd Burrell is the founder of http://www.electricsense.com/. Since falling prey to a violent reaction to his cell phone in 2002 Lloyd has spent more than 10 years researching the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on health. He is the author of an eBook entitled "How To Beat Electrical Sensitivity" which offers a solution to the growing number of people whose health is being compromised by exposure to wireless and similar technologies.

You can download his free EMF Health Report and subscribe to his newsletter by visiting his website ElectricSense.com. You can also follow him on Facebook , Twitter, Youtube and Google+.