Question

One photon or particle of light has enough energy to cause biological damage if the particular form of electromagnetic radiation is ultraviolet UV light, an X-ray or a gamma ray. There have been some claims that the use of cell phones causes brain damage. (We’re talking about physical damage from irradiation not psychological dependence or a car crash while dialling.) Search reference materials or use the Internet to find out where cell phones fit on the energy scale.

Use the energy scale to argue whether you think cellular damage from individual cell phone photons is reasonable or not. Is the energy of the transmission likely to be the only factor?

Answer 1

Cell phones radiate radiofrequency energy in the microwave range. It is non-ionizing radiation.

The nearby tissue can absorb these radiations but the frequency of these radiations are very low so the energy of a photon is not enough to ionize the biomolecules. On the other hand radiation like UV, X- rays have ionizing power and cause chemical changes in genetic material.

Thermal effect of microwave radiation can cause heating( locally) but human body absorbs and counteract heat very effectively because the human body is made up of mostly water.

If the reference point is the energy scale the cellular damage from the cell phone is not reasonable because the cell phone emits non-ionizing radiation of a very low frequency that can not cause cellular damage. Because non-ionizing radiation of microwave range is not capable enough to ionize biomolecules. The thermal effect is very minor and it is also counteracted by the human body.

But other than energy scale there are some factors reported that can cause adverse effects to human health. These factors are duration of time an individual uses a cell phone, a number of calls received per day, length of per call, the gap between the cellphone and its user. These are some interrelated factors reported in some studies and that are associated with insomnia, change in brain activity and response time. According to some studies if these factors occur frequently the use of cell phone can cause brain tissue damage.