Q: My teenage daughter has been asking me to get her a cellphone for a long time. I am concerned about potential health risks because I see her friends have them held up to their ears all the time.
Are they safe? I heard they can cause brain tumours in young people. Of course she tells me that there is nothing to worry about.
A: The most important hazards of cellphone use are car accidents caused by the driver not paying attention to the road when on the phone. The risk is increased even more when the phone is used for text messaging because this often involves the use of both hands, which means no hands are on the steering wheel and the driver is looking down at the phone and not at the road.
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I sometimes see young people on the phone while riding a bicycle. This is not safe either.
Cellphones and the control towers emit waves known as radio-frequency (RF) energy. According to Health Canada, some of the RF energy emitted by cellphones is absorbed in your body.
That amount depends on how often you use the phone, how close you hold it to your body and the strength of the signal. This depends mostly on the distance from the base station.
The RF energy from the towers is at much lower levels than from the phones. Cellphones and base stations in Canada must meet regulatory requirements that limit the amount of RF energy they emit, so the levels absorbed by the body are well below any dangerous amount.
Some researchers have found that mobile phones may cause changes in brain activity, leading to decreased reaction times and interfering with the length of time it takes to fall asleep, but these findings have not been confirmed.
It was originally thought that small studies in Sweden had found an association between cellphone use and brain cancer, but later research, using a much larger group, found no such evidence.
If you are concerned about your daughter’s health, the risks can be minimized by limiting the amount of time she spends on the phone and encouraging her to keep the phone further from her body, such as in a purse. Using a headset would be even safer.
Cellphones may interfere with medical devices including pacemakers, defibrillators and hearing aids.
They may also interfere with other sensitive electronic equipment, such as aircraft communication and navigation systems.
Open heart surgery, such as bypass surgery, is often used to treat heart disease, but it can be dangerous.
New research by Dr. Britta Hardy of Tel Aviv University School of Medicine has experimented with injecting a special protein that has the potential to regrow blood vessels in the heart, replacing the ones that have become blocked by cardiovascular disease.
“We intend to inject our drug locally to heal any oxygen starved tissue,” Hardy said. “So far, in animal models, we have seen no side effects and no inflammation following our injection of the drug into the legs. The growth of new blood vessels happens within a few weeks, showing improved blood circulation.”
The research was originally intended to find a way to restore blood flow in the legs of diabetics who might otherwise end up with an amputation.
Clare Rowson is a retired medical doctor with a practice near Belleville, Ont. Her columns are intended for general information only. Individuals are encouraged to also seek the advice of their own doctor regarding medical questions and treatments.
