March 4, 2008
Protestors clueless on wireless health risks
A very interesting read by Peter Cochran on the reality of wireless health risks on Silicon.com.
"Many protest groups actively campaign against wireless in any form because of some unknown and unquantified potential risk to health. These groups include those preventing base station towers being erected close to their schools or in the middle of their communities.
Unfortunately their lack of understanding actually has an inverse reality impact. If they understood the basic physics involved they would be asking for more towers and not fewer. Living really close to a mobile phone base station tower is the safest place to be.
Here is what is happening. The mobile phone pressed close to your ear adjusts its transmit power according to the distance from the base station.
That means the further from the tower the lower the power received by a mobile and the higher the power transmitted back as a result.
So if you get really close to a base station your mobile sees lots of signal and therefore transmits back a minimal amount in turn. Interesting, isn't it? That is the inverse perception of the protestors.
... And now for the really good news. The radiation from mobile devices, base stations, wi-fi and WiMax equipment is non-ionising. That is, it can only jiggle cells and warm them up. To do any real lasting damage, very high powers are required - microwave oven-style."
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