How fried is your brain? (Mobile phone safety)

Member Name: Fishbulb

Product:	Mobile phone safety
Date:	18/04/02 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Keep in touch where ever you are (as long as there's a transmitter nearby), Funky ringtones, makes a good club if you're attacked

Disadvantages: Can be annoying to anyone but the user, Other people with "funky ringtones, playing with their phones in the pub!, Causes terminal rudeness, being stuff with your mate in the pub whilst he talks to his girlfriend on the mobile ain't much fun!

Well, with over half the people in Britain having mobile phones it no wonder that people are concerned about their safety. I mean, if you were standing next to an electric pylon you may be a little wary, but if you were standing in the middle of a field of pylons, no one would blame you for being frightened. Now, I know that this is a bit extreme, but I thought it was a good way of illustrating public hysteria. The more you are surrounded by things, the more aware you become about them and the more information that is given to the general public – the more it is misinterpreted.

OK, the boring bit, we all know what ‘mobile’ means – it means ‘moveable’ – in layman’s terms and ‘telephone’ means ‘an instrument that converts voice and other sound signals into a form that can be transmitted to remote locations and that receives and reconverts waves into sound signals” (for those of you who didn’t know!)

Anyway, this brings me nicely along to “How mobiles work” basically, your mobile phone is a low power unit that receives and emits radio waves, which connect each unit to a network of ‘base stations’ this is how you can make calls. The radio waves are the point of most concern associated with mobile phones as they have become so widely available and so widely used they have grown beyond the expectations of anyone involved in their development the actual research behind their safety is lagging somewhat behind the technology of the units. More money is being spent on the fashionable side of things, the fascias, the ring tones and the operator logos. Too much money is spent on incorporating MP3 players and radios and other junk into these objects that we haven’t dedicated the resources it deserves into finding out the true dangers in these hand-sized toys!

The things that concern me most personally are the fact that when the mobile of th
e person in the office next to mine rings, my computer screen becomes distorted for the duration of the call. And we’re not allowed to use mobiles on aircraft on in hospitals as they interfere with the instruments and equipment.

The Department of Health has released a leaflet stating “The research does show that using mobile phones affects brain activity” but for every person that says “wow, didn’t realise” “Gees, if it affects a speaker, then how’s it affecting my brain” there’s ten people that say “I couldn’t be without mine now” Why?? Why can’t you be without your mobile phone? If you're concerned that people can't get hold of you at the end of the day, if something is that important, people will find a way.

We all have telephones in our houses and answering machines, you can quite easily dial them up and collect your messages wherever you are so what’s the obsession with having a mobile phone. My parents bought me my first phone when I passed my driving test “because we want you to be safe” but back then, and even now to a certain extent the signal was hopeless anywhere but in a town and if you’re in a town then it’s almost as convenient to go into a shop or a phone box and make your call. I’m not naïve enough to believe that this is always a reliable and suitable option but it partially eliminates the ‘necessity’ in having a mobile!

There are children in my street, and in yours probably too, of only 10 and 11 years old with mobile phones, they don’t need them surely. Who do they have to call? They see their friends all day at school, a child of 10 or 11 shouldn’t ever be anywhere where it’s considered a necessity to ring for help. Even in the ‘Argos’ catalogue they have put all the fascias in the same section as the toys. With mobile phone crimes on the increa
se, particularly amongst the younger users then I can’t help but think that as phones have become cheaper and more accessible – not having to have a contract means even kids can have them. We have created a bit of a monster here with radiation to boot and no one seems to know how to stop it.

I, being the sort of person I am, do have a mobile telephone and know the risks involved and yet I still choose to have one because in this society there doesn’t appear to be any other way.

I am going to campaign for government funding to be put into mass-producing teleportation booths so we need never miss out on speaking to people we want. (This would of course also practically eliminate both airport queues and customs officers)

TELEPORTATION IS THE WAY TO GO!

If you’ve read this far, then bless you, I know I’ve ranted a bit, but I really have quite a lot to say on this subject.

Thanks for reading!

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