| There have been many reports of adverse symptoms possibly caused
by DECT (Digital Electronic Cordless Telephones), and reportedly eliminated
by stopping the use of these phones. Many people will be equally unaware
of neighbours using DECT, whose pulses penetrate right through their
walls. DECT comes with no guidance and no health warnings.
About DECT Cordless Telephones
All modern (DECT) digital cordless phones emit pulsed microwave
radiation (about 1.8 GHz), same as ordinary (GSM) mobile phones.
Emissions can be around 6 V/m within a metre of the base unit, while
powered. All DECT base units emit microwaves continuously as long
as they are plugged in. The latest Lennart Hardell paper on mobile
phone use and brain tumours (× 3 for 5 years use and ×
3 to 4 for 10 years use) shows a dose response increased brain cancer
risk for long-term regular cordless phone use. A DECT phone is a
mobile phone, but its base station is a mobile phone mast in your
house or office. If you must use one, keep the base unit and remote
extra handsets away from where you sit or sleep.
Unlike mobile phones, DECT cordless phones opeate at fixed power
levels. Mobiles turn their power down to the lowest level possible.
DECT pulses are far more aggressive than mobiles.
Mobile phone concerns
A team led by Swedish biophysicist Professor Kjell Mild, author
of a number of papers on mobile-phone health effects, has published
an update on his brain-tumour work in the summer of 2001. Professor
Mild discussed his results to date at an international conference
chaired by Alasdair Philips of Powerwatch.
Another study by Dr Lennart Hardell, published in the International
Journal of Oncology, based on the analysis of 1,600 tumour victims
who had been using mobile phones for up to 10 years. Prof. Mild
now states: ‘The evidence for a connection between phone use
and cancer is clear and convincing. The more you use phones and
the greater the number of years you have them, the greater the risk
of brain tumours. ... Mobile phones are here to stay so my advice
is never to use one without a hands-free headset.’
An earlier study by Mild linked brain tumours to the use of analogue
mobile phones. The new research repeated this and also looked at
digital mobiles and DECT cordless phones. demonstrating that all
three types were linked with increased tumour rates. Tumours only
seem to appear after about 5 years use, but there is increasing
dose-related-response with minutes of use per month and number of
years of use.
Since 1980, the number of acoustic neuromas (a rare tumour) diagnosed
in Britain has risen from one in every 100,000 of the population
to one in 80,000 a year. Some (but not all) other types of tumour
also show an increase.
Dr Richard Sullivan, head of clinical programmes at Cancer Research
UK and quoted in the Sunday Times on 16th March 2003, said the study
was worrying. ‘It suggests a strong link between mobile phones
and brain tumours. ’
A study by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found a pronounced
risk of acoustic neuroma from use of mobile phones over a ten year
period.
DECT pulse frequency concern
DECT phones could be up to 100 times worse than an ordinary mobile,
particularly if used in built up areas, due to the pulse frequency.
DECT pulses at 100Hz whilst a GSM mobile pulses at 217Hz. The lower
the pulsing frequency, the stronger the biological effect. Pulsing
in the extremely low frequency (ELF) is of great concernt. This
is why TETRA is so dangerous. TETRA pulses at 17.6Hz, in the same
range as human beta brainwave rhythm. The research of Dr von Klitzing,
one of the Medical Physicists signing the Freiburger Appeal, on
blood samples taken from children in the vicinity of DECT phones
showed that the red blood corpuscles did not ‘ripen out properly’
. The physical signs were: listlessness and/or aggression, pallor,
sleeplessness etc. This was often reversed when the phone was removed.
Choice
If you are worried, as a result of reading up on DECT, then put
up with the wires! However, the neighbours’ phones are another
matter. If you know where their DECT phone base is, you can try
a patch of foil on the wall, to screen the DECT out. Microwaves
tend to run around such barriers like water around a stone in a
stream, so a small phone-sized patch will not work. If your foil
disrupts the neighbouring phone, to avoid arguments, try to explain
the problem, using the research listed here.
DECT in the office? All your employer will do is refer to the Health
and Safety Executive, who refer to the NRPB, who cite the ICNIRP
(if it doesn’t heat you it can’t harm you) guidelines.
These are wholly inappropriate, so employees have (a) no guidance
and (b) no way to assess exposure in the office. The manufacturers
give no advice on density of DECT per square metre. If you are sensitive
to DECT, try to explain what you experience and ask for a wired
phone.
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