Cell Phones: Your head serves as an 'antenna'

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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull & cid=1\

040273591190

> Dec. 19, 2002

> Israeli researchers question safety of cellphones

> By JUDY SIEGEL

>

> Headaches, nausea, dizziness, short-term memory problems, fatigue, and

> other complaints resulting from cellular phone use are not due to

> low-level heating of the brain; instead, they're apparently caused by

> the head serving as an " antenna " and brain tissue as a radio receiver,

> according to two Jerusalem researchers.

>

> Zvi Weinberger, a physicist who heads the applied physics department

> at the Jerusalem College of Technology, and Dr. Elihu Richter, head of

> the occupational medicine unit at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun

> School of Public Health, suggested this in the latest issue of the

> journal Medical Hypotheses.

>

> Mobile phones, they explained, " broadcast specifically at frequencies

> at which the head serves as an antenna and brain tissue serves as a

> demodulating radio receiver. " Thus, precaution must be taken in the

> use of cellphones, they wrote.

>

> They called for a " reexamination of the assumptions " underlying the US

> Federal Communications Commission statement that the typical radio

> frequency exposures to cellphones are safe. Instead, the researchers

> suggested that past studies on which the FCC based its statement " are

> not applicable " to the cellphone frequencies for which the head acts

> as a resonator.

>

> Weinberger suggested that using a stethoscope-like extension device

> that transmits sound from the cellphone by air to the ear attached to

> the phone would be safer, as this device does not transmit

> electromagnetic radiation.

>

> The researchers said the oval-shaped head has a short axis of 16 to 17

> centimeters long. This dimension is equal to a half wavelength for

> frequencies in the 900 megahertz range. It is equal to a complete

> wavelength at 1800 Mhz. This shape is perfect for making the head

> serve as a resonator for electromagnetic radiation emitted by the

> cellphone, which causes it to absorb much of the energy specifically

> from these wavelengths.

>

> Numerical analysis shows that at 900 Mhz, the adult-sized head absorbs

> 80 percent of the radiation emitted by a cellular phone, while the

> head of a seven-year-old child absorbs only 69% of the radiation due

> to its smaller size, Weinberger told The Jerusalem Post. But because

> children's heads are growing, this lower amount of radiation

> absorption is much more dangerous, he said.

>

> Therefore, the British scientific recommendation that children use

> cellphones as infrequently as possible should be followed, Weinberger

> added.