Dr. Mercola January 03 2008 127,196 views
Linked below is an old advertisement for a “shoe-fitting fluoroscope” -- essentially, an X-ray machine used to look at the bones of your foot in order to judge your shoe size.
As little as 60 years ago, these devices were pervasive and thought to be harmless. But by the early 1950s, a number of professional organizations had issued warnings about the continued use of shoe-fitting fluoroscopes -- some thirty years after they were invented and routinely used. Today we know how risky and carcinogenic X-rays can be. One shoe model received such a serious radiation burn from a shoe-fitting fluoroscope that her leg had to be amputated.
I hope that it will take us less than thirty years to recognize the major danger resulting from exposure to the explosion of information carrying radio waves around us -- especially from cell phones, but also from WiFi, WiMax, BlueTooth, and other wireless devices. But I am not hopeful as the telecommunications industry is even more powerful than the drug industry, and they simply do not want this information widely known.
Unless you live in some unbelievably remote location, the odds are you’re being bombarded with radio waves that can devastate your body.
The shoe fluoroscopes emitted ionizing radiation but exposure to them was relatively infrequent; only a few times a year. This is quite unlike your exposure to information carrying radio waves where you are likely receiving exposure 24-7.Why Your Cell Phones Are Dangerous
Let me be VERY clear. The danger from most land-based portable phones, cell phones and WiFi routers is not from the magnetic radiation or the microwave carrier wave from which typical SAR ratings are given on phones. Unless you have massive exposures like you might expect in a microwave oven, these thermal effects are insignificant.
Nearly all the biological damage comes from the modulated signals that are carried ON the carrier microwave. These modulated information carrying radio waves resonate in biological frequencies of a few to a few hundred cycles per second, and can stimulate your cellular receptors causing a whole cascade of pathological consequences that can culminate in fatigue, anxiety and ultimately cancers.
This is a MAJOR problem because in the last few years we have had an exponential increase in exposure to these waves. It took from 1984 to 2004 to reach the first billion cell phones, the second billion took just 18 months, the third billion took only nine months and the fourth billion just six months.
And this does not at all factor in your major exposure to WiFi routers (wireless internet), which are now pervasive. Since there is a lag time of five to 20 years before many of these effects become clinically apparent, now is the time to act before you or your family suffer the damage.
History is Repeating Itself Right in Front of Your Eyes
Depending on your age, you might even remember getting your shoes fitted with one of these fluoroscopes. For many, it’s a vivid childhood memory, as these high-tech shoe-fitters had infiltrated small-town America even before 1930. Yet, it wasn’t until about 1949 that people began asking questions about the radiation doses it was delivering.
The fact that these machines were in wide-spread use throughout the United States before any attention was given to the potential health hazards from its x-ray radiation says a lot about the enduring wish for new technologies to be harmless. How come no one seemed to care about safety testing before unleashing them on the public? Especially since there were warnings about hazards from x-rays within the medical practice?
Today, thanks to declassified government documents, we know quite a bit about how powerful segments of the U.S. Government were – and most likely still are – actively engaged in suppressing information that might cause you to worry about radiation hazards of all kinds. Back then, they suppressed information about radiation fallout from bomb testing and from the work done by certain defense industries, and the radiation exposure from living near these facilities, for example.
The danger of industrial fluoride waste from the bomb- and aluminum industries is another giant cover-up that resulted in the U.S. government-backed water fluoridation policy.
Are You Already Suffering the Effects and Don’t Even Realize it?
Numerous studies claim there is no biological impact of RF radiation within the cell phone range. Still, researchers in different countries, in different laboratories, are finding disturbing results that point to far greater health implications than anyone is ready for.
Unfortunately, most people fail to correlate common symptoms and health problems to their exposure to cell phones and other radio frequencies, perhaps because these conditions can so easily be attributed to other causes (including so-called “unknown” causes) as well.
Take a look at these common illnesses and ailments, which have all been scientifically linked to cell phone information carrying radio waves:
Although cancer and brain tumors are most often cited as the potential health risks from cell phone radiation, as you can see, cancer is not the only, or most common danger that you and your cell-phone toting children face.
Be Careful -- Most Headsets Actually Increases Your Health Risk
For some time, the standard recommendation to reduce your radiation exposure was to use a headset. It was thought that since radiation decreases exponentially over the distance between you and the phone, this would solve the problem.
But, newer investigations, and the emergence of wireless earpieces (like Bluetooth) turns this idea upside-down. These headsets may actually intensify your exposure to harmful radiation because the headset itself acts as an antenna, which is now inserted directly into the ear canal. And “wired” headsets are usually little better, since the wire itself can act like an antenna and transmit dangerous radiation to your head. In fact, testing has indicated that your cell phone headset may actually raise the amount of radiation emitted by more than 300 percent!
It's vital that you know the pros and cons of cell phone headsets—especially now that laws requiring "hands-free" cell phone headsets while driving are going in effect all over the U.S.
The British Independent Group on Mobile Phones suggested that headsets are an ideal solution only if they were used with filters to stop the headset wire from acting as an effective antenna. One solution is an air tube headset. These conduct sound, but prevent any radiation from traveling up the wire to your brain.
More Safety Tips to Limit Your Exposure
To date, there are few alternatives to ensure complete safety, but there are some common sense recommendations:
Response to jaydee3:
You stated: "I am a little skeptical of all the absolutist asseverations made here and elsewhere. The earth itself is so bombarded by radiation from outer space and the sun, that cellphones are the least of our problems. ... We simply don't have enough information to make a judgment on the merits or lack of merits on some preconceived threat. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it may not be a fact that cellphones may be dangerous, but we don't know for sure." (YES WE DO!)
www.powerwatch.org.uk/.../20070424_wifi_myths.asp
With all due respect, if you become familiar with the scientific studies as I have (over 3.5 years and THOUSANDS of hours of intense reading) you will find the evidence of harm from cell phones and cell towers is factually OVERWHELMING. As Dr. Carlo says, we should be placing all these radiofrequencies into WIRED systems and fiberoptics (NOT blasting them out into the environment).
“There's so much money involved, that the only thing industry sees is the money.” … “They couldn't give a damn about basic science.”
Dr. Jerry Phillips – U.S. Cell phone researcher
“There are now too many industrial and political interests vested in the exponential growth and profits of the global telecommunications industry, regardless of the impact on cancers and neurological disease.”
Dr. Robert O. Becker
“My problem is that there is so much research that shows adverse biological and health effects, but there is a concerted campaign to ignore, discredit or attack the messengers. The studies are not generally known by authorities who trust bodies that appear to be reliable but who deliberately mis-quote and mis-represent the published research. This continues to delay measures to protect public health by retaining the strongly misproven assumption of tissue heating being the only effect.” Dr. Neil Cherry (Lincoln University, NZ)
Wireless is killing all of us, user and nonuser alike (not to mention plants and animals).
Thank You BanMER!!!!
for your response to to jaydee3.....All I can say is I hope he stays on this web sit long enough to help him find the truth......
I have a question.
I understand the dangers of an eletric blanket. Apparently, electric blankets still emit electric fields--even when turned off. Magnetic fields are present when turned on. However, i have a 2005 Honda Odyssey that has an "electric" seat heater on the driver side. I never turn this on, as i am concerned over the radiation that may be released. Apparently, as i learned, even when this is turned off, it still may be emmitting an electic field...is this true? Is there anythig that can be done. Ojne site indicated that when electric blankets are plugged into outlets that are wired properly, they will not emit an electric field when turned off...how am i to know? What instrument can measure just electric fields--and not magnetic? thanks!!!
Some common sense:
Remember when there were no cell phones?
By Don Harkins
“[The] use of cell phones, Wi-Fi, WiMax and RFID is not only suicide, but complicity in a "slow burn" form of mass murder. If second-hand cigarette smoke bothers you, how does it compare to second hand radiation? Well, it doesn’t. Using a cell phone in proximity to others only increases the intensity of the ambient levels of radiation that are omnipresent to support wireless personal communication networks. Where nonsmokers can remove themselves or the smoker from the room, non-cell phone users cannot escape radiation by going to another room. In other words, everyone is bathing in dangerous levels of cell phone "smoke" whether you are "smoking" or not.”
“The novelty of cell phones has been replaced with addiction and the convenience has been replaced with enslavement.”
The three following comments represent the most common justifications people recite for using cell phones:
"But with my job, I have to have one."
"They are handy in an emergency."
"This way, the kids (the wife/husband/friends/business contacts) can always get a hold of me."
But consider these responses from non-cell phone users:
"Is your job worth irradiating yourself and the world around you?"
"What did you do in an emergency BC (that’s "before cell phones")?"
"Are you sure that you are so darned important that you can’t just have people leave a message on a land line recorder and check messages now and then?"
And one bonus retort: "If an industry is using your addiction to wireless toys as a means to finance the erection of a communications infrastructure that intends to control all life on earth en route to destroying it, should you choose to buy its services?"
The truth is you can do your job without a cell phone – or find another one.
You can prepare in advance for emergencies like we used to.
And, it is true, we aren’t so important that people can’t wait a few minutes or a few hours to talk to us.
Gee - why would they think to put a waiver like that into the contract if cell phones have been proven to be perfectly safe?
Dr. Nan Fuch has an excellent article on mammograms and the much safer thermogram technology. For info, go to: dr._nanfuch@womens-health-letter.com.
I am a little skeptical of all the absolutist asseverations made here and elsewhere. The earth itself is so bombarded by radiation from outer space and the sun, that cellphones are the least of our problems. I am more concerned with mainstream physicians taking up the banner of natural health and some of the ridiculous treatments just because it's in fashion. I was one of the original "health food nuts" as we were known in the days of Adele Davis. We simply don't have enough information to make a judgment on the merits or lack of merits on some preconceived threat. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it may not be a fact that cellphones may be dangerous, but we don't know for sure. Quoting a study here and there as most people know is not honest at best. There are enough studies saying that there is no credible threat as well, so who do you believe? Furthermore, selling "safe" headphones or ceramic disks that repel radiation on one hand, while on the other hand pushing the fear agenda border on a certain lack of honesty, in my opinion. There are many ways I could have made money and refused. If I knew people looked up to me, I would offer my honest opinion and would let people decide how they use that information. I certainly would not be selling the "solution" to a problem I was creating or pushing the agenda for that threat. I really hope you post this message and it does not get filtered.
Thank you
Clue: Don't believe any study that was funded by the industry, which includes almost every one that you hear about. Many of them are disguised as 'independent' but have underground connections to the industry, such as the famous Danish Cancer Registry study that came out a year ago. If you don't trust Dr. Mercola - look up and listen to George Carlo, who did the most comprehensive study for the industry 10 years ago. He's not selling anything.
Jaydee 3,
What does this word mean: asseverations. It's not in the dictionary and I have never heard of it before.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Finally I am not the only one here. I agree. I find it VERY difficult to swallow that EVERY single thing that is BAd for us, an alternative that he sells is available. Cookware is dangerous but he sells the good pans. Cell phone earbuds are dangerous but he sells the good one. Supplement bars are bad but he sells the good ones. Thank You. Providing the information is great. Using fear tactics to create wealth is another.