NY Times: Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?

[marmar]

Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?
By RANDALL STROSS

Published: November 13, 2010


WARNING: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body.

I’m paraphrasing here. But the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn’t want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry’s manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch.

The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers. The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to C.T.I.A.-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry’s primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only.

If health issues arise from ordinary use of this hardware, it would affect not just many customers but also a huge industry. Our voice calls — we chat on our cellphones 2.26 trillion minutes annually, according to the C.T.I.A. — generate $109 billion for the wireless carriers. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/business/14digi.html?_r=3&src=tptw

[seafan]

1. Rankings of cell phones here.

Cell phone rankings.


Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?, November 13, 2010


Thanks for posting this story, marmar.

[madokie]

2. I've got a spot on one of my lungs that worries the piss out of me-

that grew these last couple years and it dawned on me one day recently its probably because I've started wearing regular ol bib overalls instead of jeans a lot and when I was wearing the overalls I was putting my cell phone in the pocket right where the spot on my lung is. Since then I've been carrying it in my front pocket. I'd almost bet money if I was a betting person that the cell phone was/is the reason after all these years that spot started growing. If not its one hell of a co-inky-dink. The place is calsified and has been there for years and then all of a sudden it started growing in size. A biopsy showed it to be benign but who knows how long that will last. needless to say the cell phone is not carried in my bib pocket any longer.

I really think this one (cell phones) needs to be thought our a little deeper, a few more cautions issued.

[marmar]

3. Goodness......I hope it turns out to be nothing.

And I do think there are lots of "known unknowns" (sorry I had to quote Dumbsfeld) with cellphones.