Subject:  "Cell phones said 'not unhealthy'" (guru)..
Date:     Fri, 12 May 2000 054738 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" 
To:       emfguru 
--------------------------------------------------



"Cell phones said 'not unhealthy'".....  Do they know enough to
make that statement??  I read the IEGMP report to be saying:
the jury is still out.....

The headline is by the Associated Press..... (Below)....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com

.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
                    NEW!!! Website... http://emfguru.com
...................People are more important than profits.................
                           
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04:22 PM ET 05/11/00

Cell Phones Said Not Unhealthy

 By EMMA ROSS=
AP Medical Writer=
           
LONDON (AP) _ Children should be discouraged from using cellular
telephones for nonessential calls, a government advisory panel said
Thursday, recommending that cell phones carry labels disclosing the
amount of radiation they generate.
           
Although the panel concluded there is no evidence cell phones
cause harm, it said it could not rule out the possibility that
future research could discover long-term use may be harmful.
           
``We want to give the public the evidence and let the public
make up their own minds about how to go forward with the use of
cellular phones,'' said the panel's chairman, Sir William Stewart,
a former chief scientific adviser to the government.
           
In response to public concern over potential harm to children,
the scientists advised parents to tell their children to use cell
phones only for essential calls and said the industry should
refrain from targeting children in marketing campaigns.
           
It said the old and the sick may also be particularly vulnerable
because their resistance is lower.
           
``We can't really say there's any risk for children, the young,
the elderly, the sick or the infirm,'' said panel member Colin
Blakemore, a brain development expert from Oxford University.
           
But if it later emerges that cellular phones cause harm,
children may be more vulnerable because their nervous systems are
still developing, they have thinner skulls and smaller heads, and
they would have a longer liftetime exposure to the radiation, he
said.
           
International guidelines governing the amount of radiation
cellular phones can emit already include a substantial extra margin
of safety to account for the special concerns of children, the
elderly and other vulnerable populations, said panel member Dr.
Michael Repacholi, who heads the World Health Organization's
program on electromagnetic fields.
           
The panel said a few preliminary studies have suggested
radiation may cause subtle biological changes in the brain, but
that does not mean health necessarily would be affected.
           
The radio waves transmitted by cellular phones mostly come from
the antenna. Heat in the handset is not related to radiation, but
to the battery depleting with use.
           
Safety is judged partly by something called ``specific energy
absorption rate,'' or SAR. It refers to the rate at which the
microwaves are absorbed by tissue in the head of the person using
the phone and is measured in watts per kilogram of tissue.
           
Most countries use the international guidelines governing the
SAR values, which are set at 2 watts per 2.2 pounds of tissue. That
has a built-in extra margin for those more susceptible to
radiation, the World Health Organization says. The United States
uses 1.6 watts per 2.2 pounds.
           
Not all cellular phones have the same rate, and the value partly
depends on the design of the handset.
           
The scientists recommended that the radiowave absorption rate be
quoted on the packaging, on the phone itself, in the handset's
on-screen menu and on the Internet so consumers can compare rates.
           
Leaflets explaining the significance of the numbers, as well as
the health evidence so far, should be sent to every household in
the nation, they said.
           
The panel also recommended stricter controls on the location of
cellular phone masts.
           
The government said it would act immediately on several of the
recommendations, and consider others.
           
``The government will expect SAR measurements to be displayed at
all points of sale and with each cellular phone and on the World
Wide Web,'' the Department of Health said in a statement.
           
The department also announced plans to beef up its research
program.
           
The cellular phone industry praised the report and said it would
contribute to a fund for more research and make information on
radiation absorption rates readily available to consumers.
        
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com