Studies: RF a risk to man, machine

Two newly published stories could create more confusion rather than clarify controversies over whether cellphones pose risks to man and machine alike.
Israeli scientists said radiofrequency radiation levels below those of mobile phones can cause biological effects in humans, but researchers stopped short of declaring handsets a health hazard. The study was published in the Biomedical Journal.
Other studies assert phones do not cause bioeffects, adverse or benign.
Meantime, Dutch researchers said cellphones can be a serious source of electromagnetic interference to medical equipment.
“Critical care equipment is vulnerable to EMI by new-generation wireless telecommunication technologies with median distances of about 3 centimeters. The policy to keep mobile phones ‘1 meter’ from the critical care bedside in combination with easily accessed areas of unrestricted use still seems warranted,” Amsterdam-based researchers stated in a paper published in online journal Critical Care.
The conclusions are at odds with other findings that cellphone disruption to medical equipment is overstated and that benefits of cellphone use in hospitals outweigh any downsides.