Topic: Cell phones causing cancer?

[Clark Kent]

http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-5741203-1.html?tag=feat.1

The cell phone industry: Big Tobacco 2.0?

By Molly Wood, senior editor, CNET.com
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

 So, there's this incredibly popular product that has widespread consumer use and a massive marketing presence. Nearly everyone uses it, and it has very high social acceptance, even though some people find it annoying when it's used in public. It's highly habit-forming; people who use the product on a regular basis find it almost impossible to live without.

Unfortunately, studies start to appear showing that the product might be harmful to its users--even cancer-causing. The product's manufacturers deny the presence of any danger and even spend millions of dollars trying to discredit the research that points to problems. Then, an insider emerges, seemingly with proof that the product could be dangerous. The industry agrees to publish warning data about the product, but continues to maintain that the product itself is safe for use. Lawsuits against the product's manufacturers are filed, but all are dismissed. Industry analysts know that any case that does succeed could start a domino effect of future lawsuits, which keeps the industry determined to maintain that the product is harmless, despite increasing evidence to the contrary.

 Sound familiar?

Well, put down your lighter, I'm talking about cell phones. I've already maintained that I don't like the cell phone industry's iron-clad control over phone releases and pricing, its ever-lengthening contracts, and the annoying habit it has of crippling Bluetooth phones so that I can't use them the way I want to. But it takes only a few minutes of looking into the cell phone radiation quagmire before I start to think, man, these guys have Big Tobacco 2.0 written all over them. Actually, I'm not the first to think of it, but a recent article in the University of Washington alumni magazine indicates that the behaviors aren't going away, even as the potentially damning research continues to mount.

OK, I know the obvious differences: I'm sure cell phone manufacturers are not deliberately making their products more addictive, for example--although they are, of course, always offering new and improved services and ever-increasing buckets of minutes, which can't help but encourage us to use our phones more and more frequently. But, just as Big Tobacco did, the cell phone industry seems bound and determined to thwart and deny any suggestion that its product might be dangerous.

A history of bad news
For example, in 1994, University of Washington bioengineering professors Henry Lai and Narendra Singh found that the DNA in rats' brains was damaged after two hours of exposure to levels of microwave radiation considered safe by the government. When Lai and Singh published the research, a leaked memo from Motorola's head of global strategy, Norm Sandler, talked about ways to minimize damage by undermining their research, with Sandler writing, "I think that we have sufficiently war-gamed the Lai/Singh issue." Ouch. Worse, research biologist Jerry Phillips, who was paid by Motorola to conduct similar testing, says he was able to duplicate Lai and Singh's findings, but was then asked not to publish the research and was subsequently shunned by the company. Motorola says it told Phillips that his findings needed clarification, and the industry still maintains that Lai and Singh's results have never been duplicated and can't be considered legitimate.

The biggest Russell Crowe-style insider in this case, though, is Dr. George Carlo, who was hired by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association to head up a $28 million research program into possible health effects from cellular phones. Unfortunately, he now says his findings show an increased rate of brain cancer deaths, development of tumors, and genetic damage among heavy cell phone users. He wrote this letter of concern to the president of AT&T Corporation and later went public with his findings after what he considered to be neglect by the industry. He's since broken with the industry, become a vocal critic, and coauthored a book called Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age--so you can tell he's on the "cell phones could cause cancer" side of things.

Meanwhile, more studies keep coming, and they seem to be getting worse. A study funded by the European Union reported last December that radio waves from mobile phones do, definitively, damage DNA and other cells in the body--and that the damage extended to the next generation of cells. Even though mutated cells are considered a possible cause of cancer, the UK National Radiological Protection Board said that since the study didn't show that the damage definitely led to disease, consumers shouldn't worry too much about the findings.

Uh, right. In the meantime, the report recommended that children use mobile phones only in emergency situations. You know, just in case. How reassuring.

The cell phone industry hasn't commissioned another large-scale study--at least not publicly--since its fateful encounter with Dr. Carlo--and why would they? They're in a catch-22. It's a multibillion dollar industry, and they simply can't afford to find out, definitively, that cell phones are dangerous. Worse, just like the tobacco companies, if they start issuing warnings and precautionary tales now, it'll look like they knew all along that the radio waves were dangerous, opening them up to major liability claims. They've already dodged one big, big bullet--an $800 million lawsuit against Motorola and cell phone carriers was thrown out in 2002, with the judge ruling that there wasn't sufficient evidence for trial. Since then, neurologist Dr. Christopher Newman, who filed the lawsuit, has died of brain cancer.

Listen, I use a cell phone, and I'm not trying to scare the bejesus out of everyone. But I do use a headset when I'm talking for any long period of time, and I carry that sucker in my purse, not my pocket. (I know you guys don't have that luxury, but reconsider the briefcase, OK?) And if you're shopping for a new phone, you might want to check our cell phone radiation chart to see which ones carry a low dose.

In a few more years, we'll either know for sure that cell phones can cause cancer, or we'll know they can't. I just hope we don't find out the hard way--through subpoenaed documents from cell phone makers and carriers who've been trying to minimize their damages and maximize their profits for more than a decade.



So here is what I'm wondering: If it's true, what kind of range would be safe for extended exposure?  Would bluetooth help stave off the radio effects, or worsen it?  Notice I ask IF this is true.

[Centurus]

I would think that bluetooth or any wireless headset or earpiece would increase the risks, or at the very least, not reduce the risks.  You're still sending some sort of radiation to your head, it just won't necessarily be radio emissions.

A number of people where my mom works at have been coming down with various conditions concerning their heads and or brains, including non-malignant tumors and brain cancer, and all of them used various wireless earpieces like Bluetooth constantly with their cell phones.  Granted, there's no concrete evidence that the devices could have caused it, but would anyone here dismiss the possiblity that the devices might have increased the risks?

The possibility kinda scares me a bit.  It's a good thing I don't use my cell phone that much.  Thank God for prepaid cell phones.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Just means that Cell Phone Conversations won't be private in the future.  People are going to have to use the Speaker Phone Option for "safe operation" (What about the cells in your hands?)

Guess we'll be seeing, "Kirk to Enterprise." A little more often.

One question though, the focus of this research was understandably on Cellular Phones.  Was there a similar study done on Two-Way Radios, for our Military brethren?

[Centurus]

Good question.  I don't think one's ever been done.  I can see the connection between two way radios and cell phones. 

[Just plain old Punisher]

It's a bunch of junk science.

Look, all that microwave radiation can do is HEAT the tissue. It won't affect the DNA because it isn't ionizing radiation.

The power levels involved (at around 900-1200mhz) aren't enough to even heat the tissue, much less cause damage to the DNA. We're talking about power levels that are less than a watt. Way less.

There are much more powerfull sources out there, say FM radio towers or microwave relays, or the X-Band search radars that I occasionally provide tech support for. Those can go well into the megawatt range. Actually, you probably don't want to be near a X-Band search radar when its powered up, but that's another story.

And we aren't getting cancer from those, right?

[Clark Kent]

It's a bunch of junk science.

Look, all that microwave radiation can do is HEAT the tissue. It won't affect the DNA because it isn't ionizing radiation.

The power levels involved (at around 900-1200mhz) aren't enough to even heat the tissue, much less cause damage to the DNA. We're talking about power levels that are less than a watt. Way less.

There are much more powerfull sources out there, say FM radio towers or microwave relays, or the X-Band search radars that I occasionally provide tech support for. Those can go well into the megawatt range. Actually, you probably don't want to be near a X-Band search radar when its powered up, but that's another story.

And we aren't getting cancer from those, right?

I dunno, it's not like I can just go somewhere, leave and be like "damn, I'm glad I left that place, I could just feel myself developing cancer."

[Nemesis]

Just means that Cell Phone Conversations won't be private in the future.  People are going to have to use the Speaker Phone Option for "safe operation" (What about the cells in your hands?)

So now instead of only having half of the conversation inflicted on passerbys both sides will be roaring out at us?  Grrrr!

[Just plain old Punisher]

It's a bunch of junk science.

Look, all that microwave radiation can do is HEAT the tissue. It won't affect the DNA because it isn't ionizing radiation.

The power levels involved (at around 900-1200mhz) aren't enough to even heat the tissue, much less cause damage to the DNA. We're talking about power levels that are less than a watt. Way less.

There are much more powerfull sources out there, say FM radio towers or microwave relays, or the X-Band search radars that I occasionally provide tech support for. Those can go well into the megawatt range. Actually, you probably don't want to be near a X-Band search radar when its powered up, but that's another story.

And we aren't getting cancer from those, right?

I dunno, it's not like I can just go somewhere, leave and be like "damn, I'm glad I left that place, I could just feel myself developing cancer."

Your microwave oven puts out a lot more power than a cell phone.

Are they giving you cancer?

[Javora]

I remember a story on the news a long time ago where researchers duct taped cell phones to pigs to test what (if any) damage was being done to these pigs brains while the cell phone was in use.  IIRC no damage was found.  If I have time I'll look around for that story.  Funny story though, can you imagine being the one having to call those pigs on the cell phone.  I can only imagine the one sided conversation.   

[Clark Kent]

It's a bunch of junk science.

Look, all that microwave radiation can do is HEAT the tissue. It won't affect the DNA because it isn't ionizing radiation.

The power levels involved (at around 900-1200mhz) aren't enough to even heat the tissue, much less cause damage to the DNA. We're talking about power levels that are less than a watt. Way less.

There are much more powerfull sources out there, say FM radio towers or microwave relays, or the X-Band search radars that I occasionally provide tech support for. Those can go well into the megawatt range. Actually, you probably don't want to be near a X-Band search radar when its powered up, but that's another story.

And we aren't getting cancer from those, right?

I dunno, it's not like I can just go somewhere, leave and be like "damn, I'm glad I left that place, I could just feel myself developing cancer."

Your microwave oven puts out a lot more power than a cell phone.

Are they giving you cancer?

I don't KNOW what causes cancer, all I have to go on is correlations that indicate a connection, direct or indirect between two events.  It's not like I can stad infront of something or go any place and be like "oh, I can really feel the cancer inducing rays here!" 
this is still relatively new technology, and most likely EMF waves do have some kind of effect on our biological processes, though I don't know what that effect is, how much of an effect it is, whether it is cumulative, etc etc.  My guess is that it's safe and any effect it has on our bodies is negligble, but I don't KNOW anything about it.
Besides, if you notice, I didn't say I believe that this cell phone damage was true, I only asked IF we assumed it was true, what would be the consequences.

[Nemesis]

Funny story though, can you imagine being the one having to call those pigs on the cell phone.  I can only imagine the one sided conversation.   

Yeah.  Those pigs won't let you get a word in edgewise.

[Just plain old Punisher]

It's a bunch of junk science.

Look, all that microwave radiation can do is HEAT the tissue. It won't affect the DNA because it isn't ionizing radiation.

The power levels involved (at around 900-1200mhz) aren't enough to even heat the tissue, much less cause damage to the DNA. We're talking about power levels that are less than a watt. Way less.

There are much more powerfull sources out there, say FM radio towers or microwave relays, or the X-Band search radars that I occasionally provide tech support for. Those can go well into the megawatt range. Actually, you probably don't want to be near a X-Band search radar when its powered up, but that's another story.

And we aren't getting cancer from those, right?

I dunno, it's not like I can just go somewhere, leave and be like "damn, I'm glad I left that place, I could just feel myself developing cancer."

Your microwave oven puts out a lot more power than a cell phone.

Are they giving you cancer?

I don't KNOW what causes cancer, all I have to go on is correlations that indicate a connection, direct or indirect between two events.  It's not like I can stad infront of something or go any place and be like "oh, I can really feel the cancer inducing rays here!" 
this is still relatively new technology, and most likely EMF waves do have some kind of effect on our biological processes, though I don't know what that effect is, how much of an effect it is, whether it is cumulative, etc etc.  My guess is that it's safe and any effect it has on our bodies is negligble, but I don't KNOW anything about it.
Besides, if you notice, I didn't say I believe that this cell phone damage was true, I only asked IF we assumed it was true, what would be the consequences.

Well, we can test this theory directly. Microwave radiation cannot damage DNA, and that is what's needed to cause cancer. Microwaves can indeed heat tissue, but at the energy levels we're talking about it's impossible for the radio energy to do ANY detectable heating of the tissue. In fact, if there was ANY heating, it would simply be due to power usage and your own body heating the cellphone earpiece overtime. In effect, the device would heat up as it was being used, but that heat wouldn't be more than a few degrees difference from your body heat -- and it certainly wouldn't result in long-term cell damage.

Cordless telephones operate much on the same power levels and frequencies, and they haven't been linked to cancer. Nor have microwaves, which operate at power levels thousands of times greater than a cell phone.

Nor FM radio transmitters, or satelite transmitters, or Air traffic control transmitters which operate at thousands of watts outputted power and at similar frequencies to that of cell phones (depending on which mode they're in).

Without the underlying science to prove the fact, statistical corrolation is useless.

[Dash Jones]

My cat that blew up in the microwave would argue against your points...primarily that her DNA is now deterioating at a record pace and obviously the microwave changed her innards enough that not only did it blow her up, but it also seemed to have cooked part of her...



;P

[Panzergranate]

OK, as a qualified radio and electronics engineer I'd better set things straight here....

OK, here comes the science....

They're not worried  about microwaves, etc. here, they're worried about polarised radiation.

I shall explain how polarised radiation is generated:
 
Take a length of wire, hopefully tuned to be divisable by a quarter wavelength of the frequency that you want to transmit and receive on.

Connect one end to an alternating currect source running at the desired frequency that you want to use.

The length of wire will have its polarity (+/-) potential alternating at your chosen frequency.

This will cause the wire to generate a polarised field around itself.

From this polarised field radio waves are generated.

Scientists still don't know why this happens, it just does!! It's one of the 99% of physical laws of the universe that they haven't quite figured out yet!!

Now, here's the thing that worries the doctors, etc.

When , say a woman, is having a yack attack on her mobile phone, this polarised field is projected through her skull. Notice how your mobile makes your ear feel warm after a few minutes?? That's what polariasing radiation does. Microwave ovens use polarised radiation to cook food. Anyone remember the old CB party trick of cooking a weener on the end of a 1/4 wave whip antenna?? Same principle.

OK, the industry standard for a maximum (they're  guess)  "safe" dose of polarised radiation for an average human male in an hour is 400 Rads. To calculate how much exposure time you have is taken froma bench mark equation:

400 Rads = 28 Mhz. @ 108 Watts for 1 hour.

If you double the frequency, you half the time it'll take to receive 400 Rads worth of exposure.

If you double the power, you half the time it'll take to to receive 400 Rads worth of exposure.

The higher the frequency, the shorter the time. The higher the power, the shorter the time.

A typical mobile phone (cell phone) runs at between 900 to 1,000  Mhz.  at a power level of below 500mW. (0.5 Watts)

It works out that you'd need to use a phone for 2.3 hours to receive 400 Rads worth of polarising radiation, actually twice as long as the phone's batteries can last.

Ah.... but they only guessed, over 30 years ago, that 400 Rads is a safe level of exposure. They were calculating on only engineers sevicing TV and radio masts being exposed occasionally a few times a year. Needless to say, they could be wrong!!

[Panzergranate]

Oh, and another thing about RF not being able to heat up human tissue....

I managed to suffer nasty RF burns, to two finger tips, from a 14 Mhz. transmitter at a mere 25 Watts when a Standing Wave (because the anttenna was way out of tune) caused the casing of the transmitter to become polarised.

RF burns are caused by polarised radiation and have killed many radio engineers over the decades. In my case, both my fingers smoked when I touched the metal control knobs on the 1950's KW 18 trabceiver I was setting up for a friend. These nastion was that the controls wre red hot. I ended up with a nice knurled imprint across both fingers.

It is a well known facte and part of the radio exam ciriculum that any RF, at even modest power of a Watt, given the right conditions such as a standing wave, will cause skin tissue to burn. All radio stations are required to carry out standing wave tests periodically for obvious safety reasons. Standing waves can and do kill people using radio transmitter equipment. It is the main reason for licences being required to operate and maintain hiigh powered equipment. I have to be licenced to work on such equipement to show that I'm compedent and have to keep an up to the minute log on antenna tests, just in case, just to help the coroner figure out what went wrong.

[Nemesis]

In related news.

Do implanted RFID chips cause cancer?

[Hexx]

From another point of view (and I don't trrsut the cell phones) but
What's NOT giving us Cancer?

I mean I get out of the car in the morning at work and look at the exhaust fumes hanging in the air and go -yep,Cancer
I'm pretty sure teh meat I eat for luch is doing nasty things.
Coke Zero? Don't make me laugh
"Sure this dark fizzy drink doesn't have any calories or anything" <- Got to be cancer in a glass.

Now I don't use a cellphone (or actually I use one rarely when I want to get in touch with someone, no one gets to call me ) but figure they're just doing what everything else does.

[Bonk]

Exactly Hexx. Life is cancer. Cancer is defined as uncontrolled growth, I think humans fit the definition. Seriously though, cancer is an inevitable side effect of life. There are so many regenerative tissues in the body that walk the fine line of cancer continuously (stomach wall epithelial cells, epidermis...). I think we just have to take the bad with the good, as regenerative tissues are required and we have not yet designed superior cellular machinery to do the job.

[Panzergranate]

These devices are passive. They operate on the crystal set principle in that they derive power from exposure to a polarised field. They have no power source of their own, hence the passive label.

Certain pieces of electronics test equipment, Standing Wave Meters and Field Strength Meters, are totally powered by polarised field radiation. I've had to take a Field Strength Meter apart, years ago, at the local college just to prove to students that it contained no power sources such as batteries.

These implanted devices can only transmit a signal when being stimulated by a polarised field for power. Their power output in approximately 1 Milliwatt and they ooperate in the lower VHF band.

However, they aren't fussed what source of RF polarised field from which to derive power from. We live in an RF rich environment, what with wireless networks, mobiile phones, CB radio, Ham radio, wireless CCTV, etc. and so these devices could be powered up, radiating away in their own low powered way, most of the day.

As exposure is related to frequency and power output, even constant exposure to 1 Milliwatt might be harmful. It would take the best part of a year to clock up 400 Rads of exposure from a pasive device. They have a transmitting range of about a few Inches anyway.

They have these scare stories from time to time and a ot of scientists make a good living researching the scare for a few years, only to discover that what the engineers told them, in the first place, was true, and there was no problem in the first place. Still, they've made a living for a few years from it.

They'll be researching this for years, costing the taxpayer's lots of money in the process, and will eventually publish a paper saying that they could find no link. Any engineer would just do the mathematics and prove that there is no link. That's why God created mathematics to run the Universe so that everything could be simply worked out on a blackboard with a piece of chalk.

As for possible causes of cancer, there is suspicion towards some food substances we take in every day, without think twice about what we're doing.

The amount of Steroids and Growth Hormones in US meat, which is causing the obessity, etc. The French will not import US meat because of this. As a UK  documentary pointed out, quote, "When a nation that eats anything that slimes, slithers or crawls on the face of the Earth kicks up a fuss about a certain food, the world should take notice!!"

Another food item is greens. The human digestive system is not designed to eat greens, chloraphyl is a toxin to us that we develop ensimes to surpress as we grow into adulthood, rather like we do with alcohol. I was lucky as a kid in that I had a huge intollerance to chloraphyl and so never had to eat greens as they made me very ill. I still grew up tall and strong. Yep you're parents lied and made you suffer for nothing.

We were designed to be omnivores, occasionally hunting prey or eating berries, fuit, roots vegetable and tubors. And we were meant to exercise by walking miles looking for our meals.

Even bushmen in Africa or Amazon Indians suffer cancer despite living a natural healthy lifestyle.

Cancer has always been with us and is not unique just to us, all animals suffer from cancer. It is just one of nature's ways of thinning the herds.

It dos amaze me how some people voulenteer for cancer smoking coffin nails. My father died last years from his life addiction to cigarettes.

[Dash Jones]

Thanks Panzergranate for your explanations.  +1.

I enjoyed the read.

[Panzergranate]

Fun and games with a CB radio....

Here's a party trick anyone can do with a car CB radio and a Weiner.

Spear the Weiner onto the end of the car antenna whip (obviously it'll need to be a stainless steel antenna and not a fibreglass helical antenna).

With the Weiner on the end of the antenna, key up the mike for a minute or two. The Weiner will be cooked or hot.

And here's another magc trick with radio....

Hold a unconnected flourence tube, straight out of the box, next to the CB antenna and have someone key up the rig.... Whoa, the tube lights up without any electrical power!! Freaky man!!

Polarised radiation can also excite the Neon gas inside the tube and cause it to glow.

Now run your hand along the glas tube and you'll find that the tube will only be lit up to where your hand is!!

 

[Just plain old Punisher]

When , say a woman, is having a yack attack on her mobile phone, this polarised field is projected through her skull. Notice how your mobile makes your ear feel warm after a few minutes??

I wonder, how much of that heat is due to the polarising radiation, and how much of it is due to an energized electronic device being placed close to your body and thus receiving your body heat and that heat being insulated by both the device and your ear.

Oh, and another thing about RF not being able to heat up human tissue....

I didn't say that RF couldn't heat up human tissue. I said at the power levels involved it couldn't heat tissue to any appreciable degree. Additionally, tissue heating doesn't damage DNA and can't cause cancer.

[Panzergranate]

I have been caught (enveloped) in a high powered polarised filed whilst up a VHF radio mast on a very hot summer's day.

I was tuning and adjusting the impedence matching stub on the antenna and climbing down the 20 foot mast, standing clear and yelling, "clear" into the walkie talkie back to the transmitting station. They, in turn, would run a Standing Wave Test, lasting about 20 secinds and then tell me it was safe to climb back up the mast to fettle the adjustments.

After 20 odd trips up and down the ladder, I decided that I would be safe if I hung on under the mast in what I believed to be a lobe null point under the antenna. No I wasn't, it turned out, as when they fired up I had the sensation of millions of ants running under my skin for 20 second.

OK a polarised field will stimulate a current in any piece of metal, no matter how small. This includes Iron particles in the blood and with several hundred Watts of power to back it up, this particlular polarised field managed to generate enough current in my own blood to trip out nerve endings.

When a mobile phone makes your ear or face feel warm, it is the action of the phone's antenna's polarised field working on the Iron in your blood. If your anemic, you might not experence this to much effect.

The higher the frequency, the more effet it has on blood Iron and other trace metals in the body.

Strangely enough, it was this principle that they were intending to use for radio death rays to kill enemy bomber crews inthe 1930's. It proved to be unworkable, but, as a spin off, they managed to invent RADAR instead.

There was a thing in the US, back in the 1980's, where FBI agents were suffering Ear and Face cancer about 5 years after the FBI replaced it VHF walie talkies with new Motoarola UHF sets running in the 500 to 600 Mhz. band area.

The investigation revealed that these 15 Watt tranceivers were causing the problem and now FCC rules ban any public and government UHF hand held tranceivers exceeding a power output of 3 Watts. The UK and EU also have similar rules on unlicenced public and government hand held tranceiver equipment. They had a feature in a radio magazine and it worked out that an FBI agent needed hust to use a WT for just under 20 minutes to take in 400 Rads of exposure. So in an average day's use, an FBI aganet could take in several thousand Rads of exposure to polarised radiation to the Face and Ear.

However, qualified and licenced people are allowed to used any level of power up to 150 Watts in a UHF hand held unit, though they'd have to be stupid as they'd clearly know exactly the amount of damage it would do to them. (That's in the UK and EU.... The US has even higher power limits!!)

This was all about 23 years ago. There should be something somewhere on the web about it even today.

The international warning symbol for polarised radiation risk is a radio mast with ball topped anteena, with lightening zig zags coming from it, on a yellow triangle, worded, "Warning!! Polarised Radiation Hazard!!"

Usually found in hospitals around the MRI scanner area and RADAR instalations.


Polarising Radiation is measured in Microvolts per square Metre over a quoted distance. This is because the measuring equipment is a OA81 or OA91 "Cat's Whisker" Germainium diode across a Micriampmeter with the + terminal attached to the corner of a 1 Metre square copper plate. The plate is held braod side on to the test source and the measurement is taken.

Yes, you could easily make the equipment yourself at home for peanuts.

All transmitter equipment sold in the world has to state this figure and your mobile phones will have it quoted in the specifications.

Mine quotes 3 Microvolts per square Metre @ 10 Metres, in the specs, which is low for a transmitter.

A 4 Watt CB rig clocks up more than 40 Microvolts per square metre @ 10 metres. I've actually measured one a few years ago!!

Now here's a thought....

They only want to cure you of cancer so that the care homes can rip you off when you become too old!! If you de of cancer before growing old, how are the care homes going to deprive your kids  and grandkids of your estate??!!

[Just plain old Punisher]

When a mobile phone makes your ear or face feel warm, it is the action of the phone's antenna's polarised field working on the Iron in your blood. If your anemic, you might not experence this to much effect.

I'm curious, have they actually done tests on cell phones to confirm this?

My sanyo katana phone gets fairly warm after I've been talking on it for 30 minutes or so, with the ear piece being the warmest. But get this, the antenna isn't near the ear piece, its on the bottom of the phone.

Generally only the phones earpiece area tends to warm because, I'm guessing, that the device is using more power, and it's close proximity to my body is trapping body heat.

Not trying to be contrary here, I am aware of RF energy heating tissue at high power levels (Satelite transmitters, radar, etc...which is why before we do any tests at work on the Satelite gear we always have to have it turned off) but I wonder what the genuine cause of tissue heating in the case of cell phone usage (IE your ear) is. How much of it is the RF energy, and how much of it is trapped body heat, and energized electronics I wonder.

[Panzergranate]

Speakers do generate heat.

A friend used to have oil cooled speakers to run with his 1 Kilowatt music system (he obviously didn't hit it off with his nearest neighbours half a mile down the road, but hey, it was like being at the heavy metal concert in the fornt row!!

Anyway, he had to periodically change the collant oil and leave the caps off for a few hours to let the air bubbles escape.

So one mornig, before work, he puts in new oil and goes to work. In the evening I receive a phone call for help. Yep, he'd parked up his motorcycle, come in stuck on a Crass (Punk  Rock Band) LP and whavked up the volume. Oil was everywhere in the room!! I just creased up when I arrived and saw the mess!!

The point is that the little speakers could generate heat. Also the internal workings generate heat and the speaker slit is a good vent point. Your ear just happens to be next to it. The thing is that RF will stimulate sensations in the skin through Iron and other metals in the blood and tissue. The phone would be physically warm to touch when tested by touching against other areas of the body, if the speaker is generating the heat. RF heating takes time to be noticed. My phone has the antenna next to the speaker, as do most phones and I've noticed this heating effect and it isn't the speaker as the phone is cold when pressed against the skin elsewhere on the face.

They do have to test phones but as far as what is the safe RF power benchmark and what isn't, isbased on years of scientific speculation. They aren't that sure that this is right, even now.