Should I worry about smartphone radiation?

Q: I’m on my phone all the time, and when I’m not, it’s usually near my body. Should I be concerned about radiation exposure?

Being glued to your smartphone all day is probably not doing you any good. Excessive phone use has been linked to a range of problems, including: sleep problemsincreased cortisol levels, joint pain and even relationship problems.

But if you’re concerned about radiation, experts say you don’t have to throw away your phone.

“There is no risk of anything dangerous or hazardous with cell phone radiation,” said Gayle Woloschak, associate professor and professor of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Like all cell phones (along with Wi-Fi networks, radio stations, remote controls and GPS), smartphones emit radiation, says Emily Caffrey, assistant professor of health physics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They use invisible energy waves to transmit voices, texts, photos and emails to nearby cell towers, which can take them to virtually anywhere in the world.

But nearly three decades of scientific research has not linked such exposures to medical issues like cancer, say health authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration participation. Here’s what we know.

Not all radiation is harmful

“Radiation” describes many types of energy, some of which carry risks, said Dr. Howard Fine, director of the Brain Tumor Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

Atomic bombs, or, to a much lesser extent, X-ray machines, emit energy called ionizing radiation that – in high enough or frequent doses – can damage DNA and cause cancer, said Dr. Fine.

That’s why you usually wear a protective lead blanket during X-rays.

But the energy from smartphones falls into a category called non-ionizing radiation, said Dr. Caffrey, and he’s not powerful enough to cause this damage.

“Many people think ‘radiation is radiation’, but not all are the same.” said dr. Woloschak. “No DNA damage was observed due to mobile use.”

The more dangerous ionizing radiation can separate electrons from atoms, which make up our DNA. Over time, DNA damage can cause cancer.

Why is there still concern?

Most experts and health authorities such as the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization agree that there is no evidence that smartphone radiation causes health problems. Still, several studies over the years have made headlines for their links to brain tumors. Many of these studies have since been debunked, said Dr. Fine, including studies focusing on fifth-generation mobile networks, or 5G.

In one study published in 2010For example, researchers found a small association between one type of brain tumor and the highest level of cell phone use. But the study’s own researchers noted that “bias and error” prevented them from proving cause and effect. Of the several shortcomings of the study, one the authors said was that it relied on people with brain cancer to remember exactly how much they used their phones over many years.

All of the experts interviewed for this story said that the few studies that have suggested that smartphones pose radiation risks do not actually prove that cellphones cause these health problems.

According to the American newspaper, most people in the United States own a mobile phone Pew Research Center – and it would be almost impossible to point to cell phones as the reason why someone got cancer, said Dr. Fine. Unrelated risk factors, such as exposure to air pollution, smoking, unhealthy habits or even chance, could be the culprits.

Yet studies with such shortcomings have clouded perceptions about phone safety National Cancer Institute say.

Stay on the safe side

Cell phones are nothing like the brick phones of the early 2000s. The phones we’ll use in the next decade will be different, too. This makes it challenging to study the long-term risks of one phone. But Dr. Fine said the radiation has actually decreased with newer technology, and Dr. Woloschak said new networks are also no riskier than older ones.

“5G radiation is not higher than 4G radiation,” she said. “It just increases data transfer.”

Still, the Federal Communications Commission and its international counterparts set radiation limits for new phones. This explains why the French authorities told Apple in September that this had to be done reduce the radiation levels emitted by the iPhone 12 to meet the maximum limits. Apple has rolled out a software update to fix the problem.

Dr. Caffrey said these limits are based on radiation levels that could theoretically raise our body temperatures by a fraction of a degree. According to Dr. Woloschak, radiation would have to heat our body a few degrees to pose health risks such as burns or fever. “A cell phone will never do that,” she said.

Caroline Hopkins is a health and science journalist based in Brooklyn.