Phone
15:59, 18-Dec-2017
The phone radiation debate in California has been going on in China for years
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A few days ago, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued a guideline warning users about the safety hazards of cellphone radiation, launching another wave of debate over the issue.
The guideline warned people against keeping their phones close to their body, such as "in a pocket, bra or belt holster."
Keeping your phone in a pocket is not recommended according to the new California guideline. /VCG Photo
Keeping your phone in a pocket is not recommended according to the new California guideline. /VCG Photo
Other ways to reduce phone radiation include taking off the headset, simply using it less and not relying on radiation-proof products.
With that being said, the department also caveated their warning, stating that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that there's "no scientific evidence to date" that can prove phone radiation has any negative health effect.
The FCC has been under fire lately, for deciding to kill the "net neutrality" rule that forces Internet service providers to treat all data equally.
The fear in China
The potential of cellphone radiation led Chinese residents to organize protests in the last decade, calling for the removal of cell towers near their apartment buildings.
A cell tower stands on top of a China Telecom building in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. /VCG Photo
A cell tower stands on top of a China Telecom building in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. /VCG Photo
The central government reposted a Science and Technology Daily article in 2011 to explain the matter, which quoted Dr. Leeka I. Kheifets from the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that handsets could trigger cancer just like coffee does.
The WHO maintains a list of items that can give you cancer, with the probability grouped into categories. Both cellphones and coffee belong to Group 2B, which means "possible carcinogen."
If the cell towers in a residential area are removed, the phone signals actually become much weaker, causing the phones to significantly raise its output, which actually increases the potential radiation exposure for users.