Reply #97: He's still wrong.

[jeff47]

"1. Generally agree, but not all cancers are a decade in the making, sometimes 2 or 3 decades of near-constant exposure are required to develop a malignancy"

That brings us back to two problems:
-He describes no mechanism by which the cancer can be caused. What, exactly, does the photon from the cell phone do to cause cancer?
-The sun's still out there. Has been for the entire existence of our species. Blasts us with far more RF than a cell phone. That RF doesn't cause cancer. (The UV can, but there's an actual known mechanism for that)

"but that little box by the bed is a receiver only and puts out a miniscule amount of radiation as compared to a dedicated transceiver device."

My argument there is he is chosing his terminology for maximum fear. By calling it radiation it is spooky and scary. Calling it radio waves makes it mundane.

"3. Generally agree, but what happens if you stood outside basking in the light of the sun each day, UV unprotected, for the amount of time that a cellphone owner is on the phone?"

Cell phones don't put out UV. They put out the same electromagnetic waves at a much lower frequency. The sun puts out big honking gobs of electromagnetic waves at the same frequency as a cell phone. If you've got sunscreen on to protect from the UV, then this guy is saying standing outside will kill you from brain cancer.

"It may be more dangerous due to the proximity to the tissues it affects. Electromagnetic radiation dissipates in intensity in a manner directly proportional to the square of the distance from the source. We are 9.3 million miles away from the sun and it does plenty of harm at that distance, so could milliwatts at millimeters accomplish the same thing?"

Frequency matters when you're talking about this. You don't think of visible light as dangerous, since you use it to see. Yet staring at a sufficienty intense light source will blind you. And, btw, visible light is a much higher frequency than the RF coming from a cell phone. If RF is dangerous, then visible light is far more dangerous.

Lastly, yes the sun is much farther away than a cell phone. But the exposure I'm talking about is not at 3 inches from both sources. The exposure from the sun at 9.3 million miles is much higher than the exposure from 3 inches from a cell phone. The sun is that powerful.

"4. Generally agree, but we aren't talking about radio waves with cell phones."

Actually, we are. Radio waves is everything on the electromagnetic spectrum within a certain range of frequencies. Generally speaking, radio waves is everything lower in frequency than infrared light. That includes the radiation from cell phones. For convenience we'll divide the radio spectrum into subgroups, such as AM radio, Microwaves, etc. Just like we divide "blue" from "green" when we're talking about higher frequencies.

"The higher the frequency of the wave, the greater the energy it carries and the more destructive it becomes."

Visible light has a much higer frequency than the output from a cell phone. If the RF from a cell phone was dangerous, then visible light would kill you very quickly.