Did your cell phone make the ‘most’ or ‘least’ radiation list?

I grew up using a rotary dial phone. If I needed to call home, I used a pay phone or went to a friend’s house and used their phone.

On April 3, 1973, about two months before I graduated from high school, Motorola produced the first handheld “mobile phone.”

It took Motorola another ten years to produce a mobile phone that could be sold to consumers. By then, I’d made it through two college degrees without the benefit of having a cell phone.

How did I do it?

Many of you are also getting a good chuckle out of this, I’m sure. But there’s something else you should be congratulating yourself for.

Growing up without a cell phone glued to your ear probably saved you from the possibility of brain damage and cancer.

Of course, Motorola and all the other companies who started producing cell phones in the 1980s were unaware that they were manufacturing radiation-producing death machines.

Calling cancer

Study after study has made the connection between cell phone use and cancer, brain damage and other diseases.

• A 2015 Swedish study showed that people who have used a cell phone for more than 25 years had triple the increase in malignant brain cancer, compared with those who had used cell phones for less than a year.
• Researchers in Israel studied the saliva of 20 people who had been using mobile phones for 8 to 15 years, averaging 29.6 hours of use per month. Compared to people who had never used a cell phone, the mobile phone users had a significantly higher increase in salivary markers for oxidative damage.

Dialing up DNA damage

What all of this research means is that cell phone radiation can actually damage and change the structure of our cells. This may sound like science fiction, but not when you look at studies published in journals that look at oral medicine and oral disease.

More than one study has found that mobile phones can directly damage the cells in salivary glands and cause the glands to over-produce saliva.

One recent study found that cell phone radiation may alter the genes in brain cells.

Of course, the mobile phone industry and its lobbying groups are always funding studies that “disprove” these findings.

The worst and least offenders

The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection has a comprehensive database of smartphones, both old and new, and the level of radiation they emit.

Here are the top five offenders:

• Mi A1 from Chinese vendor Xiaoomi
• OnePlus 5T, another Chinese phone
• Xiaomi Mi Max 3
• OnePlus 6T
• HTCU12 life, available through T Mobile and Verizon

The iPhone 7 made it into the top 10 offenders, at number nine, while the iPhone 8 is at number 14 on the worst offender list.

On the other end of things, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 emits the least radiation. Four other Samsung Galaxy phones are also in the “safest 10” list, along with the LG G7 and the ZTE Axon Elite (at #2).

What you should do now

Of course, even with all this mounting evidence, separating people from their cell phones can be harder than removing a tooth.

Fortunately, there are protective measures you can take to limit the fallout from your cell phone.

• Create some distance between you and your phone. At night keep it several feet away from you on a dresser or nightstand. During the day, try to do the same.
• If you are able, use Bluetooth technology that allows you to use your phone without it being up next to your head.
• Get better at texting and opt to handle short conversations that way.

You might also consider herbs and nutrients that protect against oxidative damage, like:

Sea buckthorn – helps protect against radiation damage and provides antioxidant support

Rosemary extract – contains compounds that fight radiation damage

Kelp – contains sodium alignates which help remove radiation from the body

Honokiol (magnolia bark extract) – a powerful antioxidant and cell protector

Medicinal mushrooms – Cordyceps and Reishi are particularly good at detoxifying the body and protecting against oxidative stress and inflammation.

Modified citrus pectin – safely removes radioactive particles and heavy metals from the body

Sources:

1. The Phones Emitting the Most Radiation — Statista
2. Mobile phone and cordless phone use and the risk for glioma – Analysis of pooled case-control studies in Sweden, 1997–2003 and 2007–2009 — Pathophysiology
3. Is Human Saliva an Indicator of the Adverse Health Effects of Using Mobile Phones? — Antioxidants & Redox Signaling
4. Effect of handheld mobile phone use on parotid gland salivary flow rate and volume — Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology
5. The influence of handheld mobile phones on human parotid gland secretion — Oral Diseases