Featured, Health
By Benprince Ezeh
KEEPING your phone in your pocket seems logical, but you could be doing yourself more harm than good. Most people these days are practically glued to their smartphone and would find it very difficult to give it up.
According to Lily Friedman, Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine and MD Comprehensive Wellness Institute, pocket is actually the worst place to store a cell phone, especially when cell phones are on, connected to a wireless network because of the radiation, which is two to seven times higher than if it were placed in a purse or holster.
There is a correlation between radiation from a cell phone and tumour growth, and also radiation can change the structure of DNA and affect male fertility. The World Health Organization’s, WHO, International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, also found that cell phone radiation is additionally carcinogenic to humans. Merely sitting on your phone could cause health issues such as sciatica or other back problems as well.
On the ladies path, and based on research and case studies, keeping your phone in your bra could be linked to breast cancer due to the radiations and vibrations from the phone. It’s also understood that there is not enough evidence to establish a definite relationship between the two. Still, keeping your phone in your bra, especially a sports bra, is a bad idea due to the skin-irritating bacteria it could harbour, Muscle & Fitness reports.
In 2011, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, classified radiofrequency like that emitted by cell phones as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The safe recommendation is that anyone concerned about cancer risk should simply try to limit their exposure.
It followed up three years later in February 2015, the study looked at the effects of mobile phone and Wi-Fi radiation on existing breast cancer cells and found the closer in distance the RF exposure was to the skin, the greater the damage to the underlying cells. Specifically, it found radiation increased Reactive Oxygen Species, ROS, which impairs the ability of cells to repair them, which has been proven to contribute to cancer development.
A particular American study of four women who had been diagnosed with multifocal invasive breast cancer under the age of 40 after routinely storing their cell phones in their bras. None of the patients had a family history of breast cancer, and they all tested negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which are linked to about 10 per cent of breast cancer cases.
Another doctor, Devra Davis and U.S based scientist who has been studying the effects of mobile phone radiation for many years have warned your mobile phone could be doing you more harm than good. In a talk at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, she said “The pattern of putting cell phones in the bra, and now there’s a new device where you can actually have the phone strapped to your head, made me concerned about what we know about exposure to phones.
“Mobile phone-like radiation was being used positively in the medical field to treat liver cancer, detect cancer and enhance the absorption of drugs in the brain. But the reason it is able to do this was that the radiation broke down the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from foreign substances that may injure it.
“The radiation can also damage DNA, affect male fertility and change the brain’s metabolism. And that’s not all researchers have also found mobile phone use could contribute to the development of depression, diabetes and heart irregularities,” she said.
Davis who also spoke of a specific case where a young woman developed breast tumours exactly the same shape as the mobile phone she has been tucking into her bra. “It’s not just your bra that you shouldn’t be putting your phone into even storing it in your pocket could be dangerous. The small print in your phone manual explicitly advised against it, a study also showed doing so could weaken the pelvic area and reduce bone density.
“So, maybe it’s time to break things off with your smartphone or at least start keeping it in your bag,” Davis said.
Felicita Ogbu, a Ukrainian based doctor said that because of the effect of radiation on sperm structure, it can likely cause infertility, especially in men. “Phone radiation has been linked to potentially damage the DNA, stopping of cell division and uncontrolled cell division, which is where Cancer comes in radiation can also change Brain Metabolism.
“Numerous studies show that mobile phones carried in pockets of pants or worn on belts could result in loss of quantity and quality of active sperm cells by men. There have been established link between cell phones and sperm quality which shows that heavy mobile phone users ‘over four hours per day’ have significantly less viable sperm. This is corroborated by a prospective study of normal men who found that significantly increasing their mobile phone use ‘over six hours each day for five days’ caused a marked short-term reduction of sperm quality,” Ogbu said.
She also stressed that it has been suspected that phone radiation can contribute to development of depression, diabetes and heart disruption but haven’t proven due to different results from researches.
– Jan. 27, 2020 @ 09:15 GMT |
Tags: Harmful effects of keeping phones inside pockets
