The mention of the acronym SARS strikes fear into anyone old enough to remember back to November 2002 when there was a worldwide outbreak of the disease. There were 8,096 cases reported and 774 deaths across 37 countries as a direct result of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Thankfully, there has not been a single case of SARS reported since 2004.
Today I want to talk about different SARs that, for some, strike almost as much fear as the 2002 outbreak.
Let me first start by going backwards.
It was way back on 3 April 1973 that Dr Martin Cooper made what must have been a very satisfying phone call. Dr Cooper, working for Motorola, made the very first phone call from a handheld device. He called Joel Engel, head of research at rival company Bell Labs, and said, “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone.” Not surprisingly, Joel’s response was never reported.
Going forward, the first fully automatic analogue cellular system deployed was in Tokyo in 1979; in the US it started in 1983 and in Australia the first handheld cellular phone call was made at 10.42am on 23 February 1987 (there was a car-only 007 network in Australia that started on 9 August 1981 but it was limited and had low uptake).
Dubbo was connected quite early and I remember literally taking out a bank loan to purchase my first handheld phone in 1990 and today there are over 33 million active services in Australia (for our population of 24 million).
Ever since I sold my first phone on 26 July 1990, I have been asked the same question a thousand times. Will the radiation from a mobile phone cause medical issues? My standard answer is that I have been using a handheld mobile for years and it hasn’t me caused far so problems any for. I sometimes manage to get a laugh…
In all seriousness, the radiation from a mobile phone is defined as non-ionising radiation. That is, the radiation does not carry enough energy to completely remove electrons from molecules. This is similar to the radiation from radio stations; television stations; Wi-Fi devices; Bluetooth etc. Despite the theory being sound, the 37 years of mobile phone networks across the world has given a large sample space of people to allow countless studies to be conducted on increased rates of brain tumours or cancers. To this date, no significant medical change has been detected in any population.
In direct contrast to what has been observed, a new US study may change the opinions of those in the medical field. The study has not been completed and there are only preliminary results coming out of the study so far but the study showed a slight increase in brain tumours in male rats exposed to mobile phone radiation. This is part of a seven-year study which exposes rats to mobile phone radiation from the womb through the first two years of life for nine hours a day (not even my teenage children use the phone that much). The initial results found tumours in two to three per cent of male rats but no change in the females. Strangely, the rats not exposed to the radiation died faster than the rats exposed to the radiation.
Personally, these early results won’t change my mobile phone habits but I accept that there are some people very concerned about this radiation.
Which brings me back to SARs.
Since 2001, mobile phone manufacturers began providing SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) values for all new mobile phones and mobile phones sold in Australia must comply with the ACMA’s Radio Communications Standard 2003. This standard allows for a maximum SAR of 2 watts per kilogram. When looking at the specifications of your next mobile purchase, this figure is readily available to allow you to compare various models. To give you an idea, two of the more popular phones in the iPhone 6s and Samsung S7 have SAR values of 0.87 W/kg and 0.41 W/kg respectively – both well below the maximum allowed in Australia of 2 W/kg.
It seems to me that there is more risk of being injured if you are distracted by your phone while driving than there is of contracting cancer. If you are worried about mobile phone radiation, then you should also be worried about the variety of other radio signals we generate to allow our GPS devices; radios; televisions and other devices to operate. You also need to stay away from medical procedures such as X-rays and CT scans and flying is right out. Apart from the security scanners at the airport, a seven-hour flight exposes passengers to the same radiation as a chest X-ray. Earth’s atmosphere shields us from radiation that is constantly bombarding the earth but at 40,000 feet we aren’t so protected.
I can’t conclusively say that mobile phones won’t cause medical problems but at this stage, despite some rats giving it up for science, there is no definitive proof that you will suffer any medical issues caused by the radiation from a mobile phone. I’ll let you know if those rats give us any further information.
Mathew Dickerson