Cell Phones:  Enablers of efficient communication...or tools silently harming our health?

That phone call where your mother keeps telling you to make sure you’re still being safe, that 3 hour fight on the line with your soon-to-be ex, that hour long wait of being put on hold by your cable company…we’ve all experienced some, well less than satisfactory telephone calls.  Being in the digital age, the majority of these calls naturally occur via a cell phone.  So yes, while I think we can all agree to some extent that certain cell phone calls are less than beneficial, can we agree at the same time that these very calls are risking our health?

Thus where the debate begins.  Is cell phone radiation harmful or not?  Well the FCC's job is to evaluate the effect of emissions from FCC-regulated transmitters on the quality of the human environment.  In doing so, they have established the NEPA Act of 1969, which promises to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere, and stimulate the health and welfare of man.  Osceola Medical Center's case-control studies have found no conclusive evidence linking brain damage to cell phone usage, ensuring that regulations on cell phone radiation have been kept in check. 

Despite these findings, though, contrasting evidence displaying brain damage from cell phone usage leaves thousands of Americans yet to be swayed.  The Huffington Post, for example, states that cell phone usage disrupts the natural metabolism of critical areas in the brain.  Life Extension's studies have suggested that the FCC’s preventative measures regarding cell phone radiation are failing.  They state that cell phones reach the market without proper safety testing, and as a result emit levels of radiation that cause brain dysfunction, brain tumors, and other conditions such as sleep disorders and headaches.  Additionally, PSRAST stresses that the root cause of these damages can be attributed to the fact that present safety norms allow the use of mobile phones that emit far too strong  radiation to be deemed safe.  The organization’s studies have manifested the need for further buildup of the mobile phone net to be stopped.

So who is right?  Does cell phone usage indeed lead to brain damage and dysfunction?  As with all controversies, the answer remains yet to be seen.  Unlike all controversies, though, this one's impact may not, at first glance, be easily seen.  Failing to look into the research as a result could make an enormous impact on our health.  So the next time that you pick up your cell phone to make a call, ask yourself if you are simply opening up a channel of communication, or if you are in fact opening up a channel of uncertainty as well that could be making a negative impact on your health.