The Dangers of Using a Smartphone

Specific Absorption Rate known as SAR is a measure of how much the human body absorbs radiation from smartphones. It is measured in watts per kilogram.

There is no agreeable concept between scientist which shows that using a smartphone impact negatively on health to date. However, some groups of scientists (EWG) who carried out some experiments in 2009 came to the conclusion that radiation absorbed over time from using smartphones causes health issues like migraine, vertigo, tumors of the salivary gland, brain cancer, tissue damage, forgetfulness and low sperm count. 

Conversely, another group of scientists also did their research and came to the conclusion that there is no concrete evidence to show that the absorption of radiation due to the usage of smartphone cause any problems to the human body.

However, one thing that is agreed upon by various bodies monitoring the absorption of radiation by the human body is that anytime a smartphone is placed to the ear while making or receiving calls, there is increased brain activity especially at areas closer to the antenna of the phone. Furthermore, when the phone is placed millimetres away from the body, there's still an amount of activity on the brain.

Since we are so much attached to a lot of smart devices in this century, we are almost at a point where we cant eliminate the amount of radiation we take in daily but we can at least try to minimise how much we absorb into our system.

Consequently, the following precautions were suggested to at least avoid any potential problem the these radiations may cause on the body.

1. Keep the phone away from kids. Allowing a 4yr old kid to make calls without hands free set could create issues for the fragile and developing brain of the kid. 

2. Use a hands-free or speakerphone whenever it's possible. This is because the bodies absorbs more radiation when the smartphone is brought close to the ear than when distant.

3. Don't store your phone in your pocket especially if you are male and want to have children. This cannot be over emphasised. And for the females, don't put phones on your chest pockets; that baby needs pure non-irradiated breastfeeding milk.

Try to gold the phone far away from you. I personally put my phone in a bag every time. 

4. Avoid phones with high SAR values. In the US, the highest permissible SAR value for any smartphone before it can be allowed is 1.6 while in Europe it as much as 2.0, in Africa, no idea. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would perhaps be in the right position to tell us if phones permitted for sale in Nigeria meet international standards in SAR values. 

5. Finally, a smart phone will give out more radiation when the battery is low while making or receiving calls and when charging battery while on calls. Avoid the usage of making and receiving calls without hands-free during this time. 

Due to my background in  photochemistry and radiation chemistry, I can tell you that you should take these things seriously.

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