Impacts of Mobile phone on Human health and behaviour

Impacts

Human health and behaviour
Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health

Since the introduction of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use.[29] As mobile phone penetrations grew past fixed landline penetration levels in 1998 in Finland and from 1999 in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the Scandinavian health authorities have run continuous long term studies of effects of mobile phone radiation effects to humans, and in particular children. Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health.

Studies from the Institute of Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute and researchers at the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen for example showed no link between mobile phone use and cancer.[30] The Danish study only covered analog mobile phone usage up through 1995, and subjects who started mobile phone usage after 1995 were counted as non-users in the study.[31] The health concerns have grown as mobile phone penetration rates throughout Europe reached 80%–90% levels earlier in this decade and prolonged exposure studies have been carried out in almost all European countries again most reporting no effect, and the most alarming studies only reporting a possible effect. However, a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of 4,500 users found a borderline statistically significant link between tumor frequency on the same side of the head as the mobile phone was used on and mobile phone usage.[32]

One study that reviewed the link between cellphones and sperm quality found that heavy mobile phone users (>4 hours per day) had significantly less viable sperm (WHO morphology score was less than half of the lower time mobile phone users).[33] A prospective study of 13 normal men found that significantly increasing their mobile phone use (>6 hours each day for 5 days) caused a marked short-term reduction of sperm quality.[34]

Men who use mobile phones on a regular basis lose about 30 percent of their active sperm cells. Those who carry their mobile phones in pockets of their pants are putting their potency at great danger. Scientists say that even in sleep mode mobile phones are harmful.[35]

This is considered to be a thermal effect, since the testes are vulnerable to heating by RF energy because of poor circulation and heat is known to have adverse effects on male fertility.[36] Also the thermal from the mobile phone proliferates the bacteria on the key pad. By the study of some research, bacteria on the keypad is more serious and fatal to human health than bacteria in the toilet. The eyes are the other part of the body known to be poor at dissipating heat. Experiments have shown that short duration exposure to very high levels of RF radiation can cause cataracts in rabbits.[36] The non-thermal effects of RF radiation are an area of active study.

A 2007 study by Prof. Bengt Arnetz and colleagues of Wayne State University and Uppsala University, and Foundation IT’IS, USA, and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum and published in "Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS) Online" reported higher incidence of headache and also disturbance of normal sleep patterns following mobile phone use.[37]

Early in 2008, Michele Froment-Vedrine the President of AFSSET (an independent but state-funded French health watchdog), advised that parents should not give small children mobile phones.[38]

Study of the University of Szeged, Hungary showed that mobile phones carried in pockets of pants and/or worn on belts could result in loss of quantity and quality of active sperm cells by men.[39]

Safety concerns

As of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the aeroplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft's base station.[40] Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.[citation needed] Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their travelling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. Qantas, the Australian airline, is the first airline to run a test aeroplane in this configuration in the autumn of 2007.[citation needed] Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.[citation needed] However, in the past, commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the fact that the frequencies emitted from these devices may disturb the radio waves contact of the airplane.

On the 20 March 2008 an Emirates flight was the first time voice calls have been allowed in-flight on commercial airline flights. The breakthrough came after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) granted full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates. Passengers were able to make and receive voice calls as well as use text messaging on today’s flight. The system automatically came into operation as the Airbus A340-300 reached cruise altitude. Passengers wanting to use the service received a text message welcoming them to the AeroMobile system when they first switched-on their phones. The approval by EASA has finally put to rest that GSM phones on certified aircraft types are safe.

In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state "not until the doors are open" on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially grounded the idea of allowing passengers to use phones during a flight.[41]

In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.[citation needed]