Dr. Deborah Davis is a PhD, a noted toxicologist, an expert on cancer and the author of a new book called “Disconnect”. Deborah, welcome to TechCrunch TV.
Well thank you very much for having me.
So Deborah before we begin–or perhaps I should call you Dr. Davis–before we begin an analysis of your book, tell our audience about your professional qualifications because I think your message, which is quite controversial, needs to be understood in the context of your experience as a doctor and researcher.
I worked at the National Academy of Sciences for ten years as the founding Director of the Board on Environmental Studies in Toxicology, and in that capacity I oversaw the production of reports on passive smoke and asbestos, for example. And when I first hear that cell phones could be a problem, I thought the saying that were out of their minds.
I owned three phones at time. But then I began to look at the evidence, and I found that the governments of Brittan and Israel had already taken steps to issue warnings, and I thought maybe they where a little eccentric. The more I looked at it, the more I found things like this big, fat book that literally weighs well over a pound, I noticed that there really is a lot of information.
First of all, cell phone radiation is too weak to damage DNA like x-rays, I realized, as did most scientists; therefore, I thought it was safe. But even though it’s too weak to damage like x-rays, it does cause damage. There are effects from the pulsed nature of this signal having nothing to do with the power of the signal.
Right out of the bat, I realized that cell phones are two-way microwave radios. And I thought, what on earth is going on. The real turning point for me came when I saw my eight-month-old grandson be able to do little things with the phone. I thought what a clever child. And then I began to look at what that microwave radiation coming from the phone could do over the long haul.
And I realize nobody is going to die from holding a cellphone up to their head for a while. It’s the long term effect. It’s the cumulative integrated dose under the curve, so to speak. We have to be concerned about and it’s not the power of the phone. it’s the pulse nature of the signal. It makes disturb resonance in all of our cells.
So Devra, you’ve writtena book called “Disconnect the Truth about Cell Phone Radiation and What the Industry is Doing to Hide It – how to protect your family”. So a couple of minutes on the truth about about cell phone radiation, for an audience that’s probably a hundred percent owning at least one, probably 2 or 3 cell phones.
Well, as I said, I owned 3 phones myself, when I started out on this, and I still own two. And I use it all the time. It’s very simple, you just need to practice safe phone. Distance is your friend. For every millimeter, for every millimeter away from the brain or body you hold a phone, its 15% less radiation that’s getting into you.
All phones work with symmetrical antennas.
So the antennna, whether on this iPhone here, is radiating in a symmetrical way, not directional. Half of the radiation for a phone, according to studies done by industry, will get into your brain or body. That is why phones are actually only tested in two positions. With a spacer of 6 to 4 millimeters against the ear, and with a holster on the hip.
Phones are actually never tested in the way most of us use them. They are never tested in the pocket of the shirt or the pants. If they were they emit four to seven times more radiation. And the information I am giving you is not coming from some left wing group; it’s coming from industry modeling studies done by distinguished researchers in Switzerland, in France, and formerly by professor Ghandi at the University of Utah, who worked for Motorola for more than 30 years.
He stopped working for Motorola, when he produced this study showing that cell phone radiation gets more into the brain of a child than it does into the brain of an adult, almost double. When that work was published in 1996, he lost all of his funding for industry.
I think one of the the most controversial parts of a very controversial book, is your argument that the industry, the cell phone industry, is actively hiding what you say is the truth about cell phone radiation. What exactly is the industry doing?
You know, they’re not really hiding it. Here’s what they’re doin. If you go to the fine print warnings, that you find with the iPhone for example, in tiny print if you keep it in your pocket you can exceed the FCC exposure guidelines. If you go to the fine print warning for the BlackBerry, it says hold it .98 inches from the body.
And it also adds avoid keeping it near the abdomen of pregnant woman or teenagers. That’s there, it’s not really hidden. It’s in six point type. The reason the city of San Francisco and the city of Berkley have recently moved to require public information about this, is because most of us have no idea that these warnings exist at all, and its kind of, you have the information there in the fine print.
Nobody reads it.
Is it the equivalent of smoking? No it’s not, and I will tell you why. Cell phones have changed the world in a lot of positive ways. They have radically improved our ability to respond to emergencies. They keep us connected whether we want to be or not. And they have a lot of positive functions.
Tobacco did not have a positive function, except to make tobacco farmers rich and, for a while, to drive the economies of Britain and the United States because the revenues from tobacco were so great. Cell phones have positive roles. Where there is a parallel, however, is in the effect of the industry to try to keep this information under wraps.
Well, also my point was, in terms of comparing it to the tobacco industry, is that there was a period in history where most people denied – either conveniently or otherwise – that smoking was bad for your health and gave you cancer. Will there be a point, do you think, in the future, in the next ten, fifteen, twenty years, when phones come with more active warnings on them in the way that cigarettes come?
Hello, this is the 21st century, and we’re there now. I tell you what’s really going on. The United States of America is clueless about what’s happening in tech savvy countries like Finland and Israel, and frankly, France. The Israeli government has posted on their website warnings about safe use of cell phones.
And this is not to be taken lightly because, as you know, Israel is a country that lives and dies by radar and if Israel is issuing warnings about safe use of cell phones I think it’s a wake up call for the rest of us.
So you’re saying that the Americans, like in so many other areas, are lagging behind.
Absolutely. Health Canada even has just updated their website.
What do you mean even? The Canadians out there, the Canadians are usually pretty smart in these things.
They are pretty smart, but they were lagging as well. But recently, much to their credit, the Canadians have done the right thing and they have posted on their website simple information about the ways you can protect your family. And this is what you can find on our website. Distance is your friend.
We want people to learn how to practice safe phone.
Well, before we get to the details of how to protect your family, if the people who really care about this and are outraged by the lack of government activity, what can they do?
Well I think it’s happening now. That’s what’s happening in the city of Berkeley; it’s happening in San Francisco. People are coming together, and by the way, I think this problem is far too big for the government. This is a problem where the private sector is already stepping up to the plate. Certainly, Siemens has taken action by making phones that are lower powered and turn themselves off automatically.
Steve Jobs apparently didn’t want to have an off switch on an i phone, because it would be death, ironically, isn’t it? All you need is an off switch, so that we can turn them on and off whenever we want to do so. That would be a great way of reducing your exposure. Should one, though, put pressure on the manufacturers of cell phones, the distributors, the ISPs?
Where is the most sensitive area do you think, where firms or distributors of firms, or owners of the network are responsible.
I believe in the market place in a very, very fundamental way, and I think we need girl cots here. I think if women understand that their children are at risk and they choose to buy safer phones, the industry is going to have to make safer phones. You are absolutely right, we need to start with the industry making safer phones.
They already know how to do that and they’re already doing it.tcatch though. The attorneys working for the companies don’t want them to admit they can make safer phones because then they’re going to be liable as they should be, for the fact that they have been irresponsible in the past. That’s a very challenging thing from a business model point of view.
But I’ve talked to people in industry who are reaching out to me now and they say, “Look, we know we need to better.” And in fact just last week the industry and the city of San Francisco agreed that there should be general information provided to the public to reduce children’s use of cell phones, to use distance, and basically to practice safe phone.
You may have come on the wrong channel Devra. I don’t think we have any women watching but maybe there are a few out there.
You’d be surprised actually a lot of war gamers are women, too.
Finally.
Either fan boys or fan girls.
Right, well for the fan boys and fan girls out there, Doctor Devra Davis. Finally, in a minute, how should one protect one’s family?
Well the simplest thing is you use a headset. Any headset works, Bluetooth is fine, just don’t keep the phone on and on your body at all times. Don’t sleep with your phone. If you have to use it as an alarm clock, keep it a foot away from you. Don’t hold the phone directly against your head unless it’s an emergency.
Interesting, when the signal is weak you can get a thousand times more exposure from your phone. If you have two bars or less it will be, of course, running out of battery faster because it’s using more energy to reach that tower. That’s when you want to be very careful and not use a phone when the signal is weak, close to your body.
The other thing is generally keep it away from children. For goodness sake’s don’t use a phone as a pacifier. Don’t play white noise apps and put them under the baby’s head to get them to go to sleep. These are not good ideas. That is why in France and Israel they’re really moving to ban the use of cell phones for children.
I just came back from Turkey where my book has sold out. The Turkish government is banning the advertisement of cell phones to children. They are banning it in Turkey. And the Israelis are also discouraging it. The French passed a law with the same impact. We’ve got to get on board board here with the rest of the world and understand, cell phones are not going to go away.
We have got to make them safer, understanding it is really important to figure out how to practice safe phone. We protect our brains when we’re skiing or biking or skateboarding. We’ve got to protect our brains when we’re using phones, as well. And when we do that we’re all going to be better off.
Because whatever damage might have occurred to anybody from using cell phones in the past, our DNA repairs itself. That’s the good part. So whatever you may have done in the past, it doesn’t matter. All you have to do now is use a little common sense, practice safe phone. Hold the phone right here.
We are not talking about throwing it halfway across the room.
Devra, Devra Davis, Dr. Devra Davis. There you have it. Don’t sleep with your phone, practice safe phone. The author of “Disconnect,” thank you so much for appearing on Tech Crunch TV.
It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to being back.
私たちは現実にキエフと同じ未来を迎えようとしています。
しかも、20ミリシーベルト問題、本来の意味と違う風評被害、無 知な地産地消キャンペーン等によって、より早く、より多くの命に です。
人の命をパーセンテージで表すべきではない。
ひとつの命を生み育てるのが、どれだけたいへんで尊く、かけがえ のないものなのかを、思えばそんな言葉は出ないはずです。
たくさんのお母さんを中心に、つらいけどこの映像を見て、声をあ げ行動してほしい。
jundanyaazu 5 か月前 45
ちょっとまった!生存率10%というのは、この病院に運ばれてき た乳児の生存率が10%なのであって、全体の1歳未満の生存率で はないよ。
子供の総数が1100万から800万に減っても奇形の出現数は変 わらないというコメントからそれが分かりますよ。
もちろん、低線量被爆の影響は確かにあるのだから、問題の重大性 が大きいことには変わりません。
しかし、意味を理解せずに怯え間違った認識を広めることは、折角 の情報の信頼性に傷をつけてしまいます。気をつけてください。
wawwaw3000 5 か月前 37