Mobile Pedia

Recently I heard the funniest hoax ever, I received following text message from one of my friends:

Don’t receive any call from unknown numbers containing * or #. These numbers make your cell phone transmit radiations that damage brain and cause immediate death.

Who the hell will believe this crap? If a cell phone was capable enough of emitting such radiations than the product would not have been in market in the first place. If such product is developed it would be used by military instead. US army would have been calling terrorists through such “killer cell phones”. So here was my reply to the message:

Please don’t spread this rumor, its all BS

After a few days, there was news in the papers that several people had died, but later all of them turned out to be lies. Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) also issued statements that it was all an April fool joke (pretty late though).

Busting the Myth

After reading the message I conducted a goggle search to find out if it’s really a myth. I found out that mobile phones operate in the 900 to 1800 MHz range. This part of spectrum is safe and has no proven side effect. It is also known as and radio frequency radiation (RFR) and microwave radiation.

While searching one the web I also found another interesting thing. RFR emitted by a cell phone generates a certain amount of power which can increase temperature of the adjacent area. The following figure shows a computer simulation, assuming a user is listens a phone call by holding cell next to his left ear. Red/Green region shows maximum RFR absorption. Typically the increase in temperature is about a degree which is not proven to be hazardous.

Source: http://www.arpansa.gov.au/mph1.htm

Myth busted!

Your rating: Select ratingCancel ratingGive it 1/5Give it 2/5Give it 3/5Give it 4/5Give it 5/5

No votes yet

• Add new comment
• 4035 reads