With hundreds of millions of subscribers using cell phones, the health risk of cell phones will continue to be an area of serious concern, says Dr. S.S. Pattnaik, Head and Professor, ETV Centre, Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh.

Dr. Pattnaik who did his doctorate from University of Utah in USA and has worked on the biological effect of non-ionizing radiation (RF Signal), was addressing the members of Chandigarh Chapter of Public Relations Society of India.

Though there are differing opinions about the harmful effect of mobile's microwave signals, many research studies worldwide have shown that continuous exposure to microwave radiations can lead to many hamful effects on humans, including brain cancer, vision loss, Parkinson's, Alzheimer, acoustic neuroma, hypertension, memory loss, etc.

George Carlo, a public health researcher who spearheaded a three years, $27 million research program for the cellular telephone industries on possible health risks said in his report that radio frequency radiation from phone antenna "appears to cause genetic damage in human blood", while another case study uncovered a statistically significant increase "in neuro- epithelial brain tumors among cell phone users", Dr. Pattnaik informed.

My research studies both experimental and simulation based have clear indications of deposition of RF signals which is more for children. The deposition varies with head sizes, age, duration of exposure, distance of antenna from the body parts, power level etc., and even the users' postures while using the phones do affect the deposition.

He pointed out that the limit of exposure for general public has been fixed by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protections) as one fifth that of the occupational exposure, and the SAR limit for head, as per FCC, is 1.6 watt/kg and as per European standard it is 2 watt/kg.

Dr. Pattnaik suggested that the frequent users should purchase the phone with low SAR value, reduce the use time by using conventional phones instead of mobile, and keep the phone away from body parts to the extentpossible.

Ms Renuka Salwan announced that Chandigarh Chapter of Public Relations Society of India will be launching the PR campaign in association with CorePR to generate awareness amongst the mobile users, especially the young generation,

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