The possible link between radio and microwaves and human health remains one of the most complex and controversial subjects in all of biophysics. Nevertheless, there is growing scientific evidence that prolonged exposure to some kinds of radio waves does cause at least low-level changes to the movements, workings, and possibly structure of molecules and cells in living tissue. This evidence raises the possibility of harmful effects on health--a risk from which our current exposure standards are not adequately protecting us.
Today, we hold cellphones against our heads, walk past cellphone base stations in cities, cradle wireless personal digital assistants in our hands and clip text-messaging devices and pagers to our belts. We are even starting to connect our computers, cellphones and peripherals with Bluetooth and other wireless schemes. And yet, amid this increasingly dense "electrosmog," we are still using the same outdated and inadequate standards to calculate our exposure to radio and microwaves.
Author Raymond S. Kasevich, a top expert on electromagnetic radiation and medical devices, argues in the August issue of IEEE Spectrum that to adequately protect public health we need to mount a major research initiative to study the effects of low-level and localized electromagnetic radiation. The studies are needed to set new standards that better reflect both scientific fact and current lifestyle realities, he says.
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