John, 8 micro-electron-Volts doesn't sound very many, and while that might not effect a chemical bond itself, it will add to the reaction energy that little extra bit. Incidentally, do you know how many micro-eVs are in a single low energy UV photon? If so, please say.
When a brain tumor forms, I guess it is in response to the usual brew of carcinogenic factors. Any variable which promotes the chain of events leading to the demise of the DNA owner can be entered on the causal side of the cancer ledger.
There is a long list of cancer factors. Some are the big ones, such as smoking cigarettes, having hopeless DNA, catching viruses, getting in the sun, lack of nutrients. Further down the list = dental x-rays, eating fried sausages, drinking coffee. But way down the list of variables would be cellphone provided energy. It is better for the "experts" to admit the minimal ones too rather than pretend they don't exist. Or admit ignorance about what might be causal.
While 8 micro-eVs might not be measurable by way of tumors in 5 billion people, how about 9 micro-eVs of them? Or 23? How about 3245? We can guess that there is some quantum like a light switch below which there is zero effect and above which, hey presto, it all happens. But that doesn't seem to be the way much about humans works.
1900MHz hasn't been shown to have zero effect. All that has been shown is that the effect is tiny compared with other risks.
Since energy is a factor in initiating chemical reactions, it seems obvious that to get the reaction to occur, you need the components of the reaction in proximity then sufficient energy to make the reaction happen. There is a continuum of electromagnetic energy from xrays down to radio waves, and the shorter the wavelength, the more the energy provided. If all other variables are constant, and the photon energy goes up, then I think it obvious that the number of reactions that occur goes up.
As you say, at the very low energy of 1900MHz, it will be very hard work to cause cancer using a cellphone. Better to increase the concentration of the offending virus, chemical carcinogen, reduce nutrient level etc by an iota, raise the temperature a hundredth of a degree.
You mentioned heating by cellphones, but the temperature increase is tiny and totally derived from photon energy absorption, so the effect of the photon absorption will be more important at the site of absorption than by bulk temperature measurement. 300 mWatt = a third of a Watt = a very weak flashlight bulb! Not much brain heating from that. A bit of thinking would raise brain temperature more than that.
Overall, it seems obvious to me that the damage from a cdmaOne cellphone is neglible. But it also seems obvious that the damage is not zero. Near zero, but not zero.
The cellular industry has certainly not made any proof of zero harm very obvious. Now they are losing sales because people worry about cellphones. Better to quantify the risk precisely rather than glibly say, "There is no problem. Relax your Barbie heads and gossip away."
People eat bacon, bread crusts, smoke and drink booze. So they are not obsessively risk averse. But a soothingly reassuring expert is scarey.
Mqurice |
