Why don’t we hear more about mobile phone radiation?

With more and more studies and research showing a link between mobile phone radiation and male infertility – as well as cancer and tumours – why isn’t the issue more well known?

There are a number of factors that help downplay the effect of mobile phone radiation on sperm, which some experts described as being like “cooking”.

The first is the standards to which mobile phones are tested. A certain amount of radiation and electromagnetic field is allowed to enter the body and there are upper limits set for that. Many phones on the market currently, especially the more powerful, newest phones, come within a hair’s breadth of reaching those upper limits.

How far into the skull the mobile radiation can pass is limited but the tests are carried out on a model of an adult male brain. Radiation that only spreads a certain distance into the larger adult male brain will take up more space proportionally on a woman or child’s brain. Using adult men as the default might be putting everyone else at risk.

The ratings for your phone’s radiation levels are published by the manufacturer – buried in the small print of your manual. There will also be a warning in there to keep the phone a slight distance from your head when using it, or not to make skin contact. But no attention is drawn to it.

In Berkeley, California, the town council wants mobile phone shops to display these warnings more publicly so people can see them when they buy. But the phone manufacturers and telecoms industry have taken the council to court to try to block the measures.

The phone manufacturers, networks, telecommunications industry and other businesses involved are also often the ones paying for research and studies – and independent reviews of that research have found bias towards saying mobile phones are safe even when the science says otherwise.

These are studies that governments and health officials rely on when making decisions but that have been compromised by the involvement of the mobile phone industry. Independent scrutiny of different studies with different funding found that research paid for by the mobile phone industry was of a lower quality and more likely to find mobile phones safe.

In the meantime, the voices of concern are getting louder. The World Health Organisation classified mobile phone radiation as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’, an Italian court found mobile phones responsible for a man’s brain tumour and resulting deafness, awareness is being raised of the effects of mobile phones on children and attempts are being made by some cities to tackle ‘electromagnetic smog’.

And there’s WaveWall’s anti-radiation mobile phone cases. Designed to block 85% of your mobile phone’s radiation from reaching your body they still allow for normal use of the phone. Plus there are the new iPad anti-radiation cases and ones for your laptop too.

Why do you think we don’t hear that much about the dangers of mobile phones? Do you think the issue should be discussed more?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!