From: <jt2184@columbia.edu>
  To  : <cpc@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Fri,  4 Mar 2005 12:33:20 -0500

Re: heath and radio

thanks a lot steve, very useful!

Javier

Quoting Steve McBride <spm2101@columbia.edu>:

>
> Javier,
>
> I used to work in the wireless industry.  To my knowledge,
> nobody's really
> come to a consensus on exactly what power levels would start to
> give you
> health problems like cancer and tumors.  Any problems you would
> face would
> be from being too close to a transmitter, since once you get
> distance
> between yourself and a transmitter the power drops off VERY
> quickly.  In
> general, there is not enough energy just floating about in the
> air to be
> concerned about.  Even a really good signal is going to be
> million of times
> less powerful than a cell phone's transmit power.  You have to be
> close to
> some sort of antenna.
>
> A transmitter could be a cellphone, but the ones we have today
> transmit at
> a small fraction (<10%) of the energy of the ones we had only 5
> or 6 years
> ago.  If there were serious problems, they probably would have
> shown up in
> the 90's.  I'm not sure what bluetooth devices transmit at, but I
> doubt it
> is much power since they transmit such a short distance.
>
> As far as the big antennas on top of towers, some do transmit at
> the right
> power and frequency to be dangerous, especially the microwave
> antennas, but
> their energy is all concentrated in one narrow beam that is never
> pointed
> at people.  Aside from the microwave antennas, most of the other
> tower top
> antennas are relatively safe even close up, at least for moderate
> exposure
> times.
>
> Steve McBride
>
>
> --On Thursday, March 03, 2005 7:12 PM -0500 jt2184@columbia.edu
> wrote:
>
> >
> > There is something that worries me but is kind of out of our
> scope.
> > In my technological ignorance I fear health problems related to
> > highly "polluted" spectrum, radiation from antennas and all
> that.
> > In general, health issues associated with self-phones and
> wireless
> > devices. Anybody knows anything about that?
> >
> > Javier
> >
> >
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