Have no fear: mobile phones can NOT cause cancer!
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
19 September 2010
After the “Brain Haemorrhage’ scare of last week, several readers have asked whether it is true that using a mobile phone can cause brain cancer. The straight answer is no. Absolutely no way! This is just a rumour with no scientific or empirical evidence to support it.
This rumour started because mobile phones communicate by use of “electromagnetic waves”. When people hear such a complex sounding phrase they imagine that it must be dangerous!
True: some types of electromagnetic waves do cause cancer. They do this by ionising the molecules in the body’s cells thereby changing the biochemistry. The ability of radiation to ionise depends on the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation.
Ionisation can only occur when a certain critical frequency is reached. Every molecule has its specific magic value and in the entire history of physics and chemistry, none has been observed to ionise in the radio frequency range.
The term “radio waves” refers to electromagnetic radiation whose frequency is below 1,000 mega-hertz (MHz), or one giga-hertz (GHz). This is equivalent to one billion cycles per second. It might sound like a very high rate, but it too low to be detected by our eyes!
Next above the radio waves are the micro waves – the kind used in the now popular ovens. Their frequencies are in the range between 1GHz and 1,000GHz (or one tera-hertz – 1THz). These rates are also too low to be detected by the human eye.
Infra-red waves are detected by our skins as heat. They are the next electromagnetic radiation above microwaves and their frequencies are between 1THz and 400THz.
After infra red radiation comes visible light which falls in a very narrow range of frequencies from 400THz (red colour) to 800THz (violet). This marks the end of safe electromagnetic waves.
With frequencies ranging from about 1,000THz (or one peta-hertz – PHz) to 50PHz, ultra violet (UV) radiation can cause ionisation and it can harm our eyes and skin. It is no wonder that good sunglasses are those with UV protection.
In case you’ve lost count, one PHz is one million-billion cycles per second! After the UV, we get the very dangerous X-rays (above 100PHz) and gamma rays (above 10,000PHz).
Going back to mobile phones; by international agreement, they all use radio waves in the range between 824MHz and 850MHz. Remember: one MHz is “just” one million cycles per second.
Clearly then, compared to the million-billion cycles per second frequency of UV, X and gamma rays, the radio waves used by mobile phones are far below the critical frequencies that can ionise any molecule.
So; your mobile phone is safe. Use it as often as you wish. However, I must come out clean and say that I am a shareholder in one of the cell phone service providers, thus I stand to gain from your use of the gadget!
And if you don’t believe all the science above, note also that there has never been any case of cancer recorded that could be attributed to the use of a mobile phone, or any other radio communications device.
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