Mobile Phone Radiation: Effects and Prevention

Abstract

Nowadays, the use of the mobile phone has enlarged to a large extent. Mobile communication (MC) opened an absolutely new page in the possibilities of population communication, rendering assistance, operative communication etc. Mobile phone technology has several advantages and has grown rapidly in the last decade. In 2018, TRAI said in its telecom statistics report that India’s total mobile subscriber base including active and inactive users has reached 1.2 billion and 461000 mobile towers, mounted with around 1.8 million base tower stations (BTSs), as of May 2018.

Numbers of mobile phones and towers are increasing without considering its disadvantages.

All over the world, people have been debating about associated health risks due to electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and mobile phone towers. Previous research studies show no evidence of the impacts of mobile phones to human health. New studies suggest that mobile phone radiation might double the risk of developing cancer on the side of the head used, increase brain activity, and can cause damage to nerves around ears.

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This paper discusses various problems caused by the wireless communication technologies and expected methods to reduce the effects. Our conclusion shows that long-term exposure to EMF radiation from a mobile phone could cause serious health effects such as brain cancer, brain tumor, etc. More long-term studies and analysis are much needed.

 Introduction

With the widespread use of mobile phones in the past decade, human exposure to low-energy radiation in the 800- to 2,000-MHz range (microwave) has increased dramatically. With more than a billion current mobile phone users worldwide [1] the radiation absorbed by the

human body is measured using Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) The SAR limit allowed over a volume of 1 gram of tissue is fixed as 1.

6 W/kg, in India[2]. It is highlighted that microwaves from mobile phones may promote sleep and modifies brain activity. If mobile phone is ON it radiates electromagnetic field [3]. Development of using mobile phones has increased concerns about the safety of health, in recent years. The studies reflected public concerns about childhood and adult cancers. The possibility that some individuals experience hypersensitivity or other symptoms in response to mobile exposure was a high priority for research [4]. With increasing number of mobile phones, the numbers of mobile towers have also increased multifold. The towers installed on the rooftops of houses and in densely populated areas are causing some serious health hazards. On May 31, 2011, International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC), part of WHO (World Health Organization), designated mobile phones as “Possible Human Carcinogen”. [5].

Electromagnetic radiations

Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that is produced by oscillating electric and magnetic disturbance, or by the movement of electrically charged particles traveling through a vacuum or matter and the electromagnetic radiation is described by the flow of photons in the space. Each photon contains a certain amount of energy, and the different types of radiations are defined by the amount of energy found in the photons [7]. The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all types of EM radiation.

There are two types of EM radiations:

1.  Ionizing radiations: Ionizing radiation is radiation with enough energy so that during an interaction with an atom, it can remove tightly bound electrons from the orbit of an atom, causing the atom to become charged or ionized. Examples include ultraviolet rays, X-rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays, etc.
2. Non-ionizing radiations: Non-ionizing radiation is the term given to radiation in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum where there is insufficient energy to cause ionization [8]. These are low-frequency radiations. Examples are radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, etc.

Radiation from mobile phones

A mobile phone transmits 1 to 2 Watt of power in the frequency range of 824 to 849 MHz (CDMA), 890 to 915 MHz (GSM900), 1710 to 1780 MHz (GSM1800), 1920 to 1980 MHz (3G) and 2 to 8 GHz (4G). Radiation from mobile phone is defined by its SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) value. In USA, SAR limit for mobile phones is 1.6W/Kg, which is actually for 6 minutes per day use. It has a safety margin of 3 to 4, so a person should not use mobile phone for more than 18 to 24 minutes per day. This information is not commonly known to the people in India, so millions of people use mobile phones for more than an hour per day without realizing its associated health hazards. Majority of the people have reported that if they use mobile phones for more than 20 minutes, their ear lobes get warm, which is due to heating of blood by microwave energy of mobile phones.

The problem starts with a pain in the ear that gradually develops into tinnitus or a ringing sensation which finally leads to hearing loss and ear tumor. Also, overuse of mobile phones leads to drying of the skin and fluid in the eyes, sleep disorder, lack of concentration, memory loss, and even cancer [9].

Radiations from Base Transceiver Station (BTS)

A BTS provides wireless communication link between the user and the network. It has a number of radio-transmitters which are combined and fed to Base station antenna through cables. So, the total radiated power will be equal to the sum of output from each transmitter. The maximum exposure to radiations will be at the peak hour when all the channels are used and the sector having the highest call traffic will have the highest exposure to EM radiations. Gain of antennas and transmission power levels also play a vital role in assessing the exposure of EM radiations from BTS. Omnidirectional antennas have higher gain than sector antennas which provide high efficiency and coverage but the risk of exposure also increases [5]. The antennas may have electrical or mechanical down-tilt, so that the signals are directed towards ground level. Large numbers of these towers are mounted near the schools, hospitals, residential and office buildings to provide good mobile phone coverage to the users. These mobile towers transmit radiation 24x7, so people living within 100’s of meters from the tower will receive 10,000 to 10,000,000 times stronger signal than required for mobile communication. In India, millions of people reside within these high radiation zones [9].