The Negative Effects of Mobile Phones on Health

A Presentation by: Babatunde Mobisola

Eye Problems

You spend hours reading, texting and playing games on your mobile phones. In the process your eyes get strained when you concentrate on the small graphics/texts on the bright screen. This could lead to potential vision problems that could include symptoms like, eyes irritation, redness, blurred vision and headaches.

Recommendation:

Be aware of your eye health when you use your mobile phones. Take regular eye breaks from glaring at the screen, clean your screen and increase your font size.

Hearing Loss

A growing number of people are using their mobile phones to store and play their favorite music. The only problem? They may be playing this music far too loudly for their own good.

A person who spends more than two to three hours on the cell phone every day runs the risk of partial deafness over three to five years.

Recommendation:

Apart from trying to reduce the mobile phone use, reduce the volume. Avoid hearing too much music on the phone.

Sickness

The incessant touching of your phone can harbor germs on your handset. The oily residue you may see on your cellphone after a day's use can contain disease-prone germs than those found on a toilet seat.

In a study conducted at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, researchers sampled 390 cell phones and hands to measure for levels of bacteria. The result showed that 92% of the cell phones had bacteria on them, 82% of hands had bacteria and 16% of the cell phones and hands had E. Coli. bacteria, which could cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea if consumed. it stated that these germs were caused because the owner probably did not wash his hands.

Recommendation:

To avoid this, ensure you wash your hands and use a sanitizer more often. But most of all get into the habit of cleaning your mobile phones regularly.

Sleep Problems

Taking your phone to bed is not a good idea but most of us do it anyway. It is difficult to resist the phone when it is close to you even when in bed. Instead of relaxing your mind, you are constantly distracted by notifications and pop up messages. You won’t be able to sleep easily with so many thoughts and distractions.

Recommendation:

Most medical professionals recommend you switch off your phone, or keep it away from your bed when you sleep.

Stress

Your mobile phone constantly keeps you on edge as it constantly rings and vibrates.

In a study conducted at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researchers found that high use of mobile phones were associated with stress and sleep disorders in women. It was also associated with sleep disturbances and depression in men. This evidence only proves that the use of mobile phones is related to mental health and stress issues.

Recommendation:

Start by switching off your phone for an hour every day. It would help you to unwind.

Distracted Driving There are many types of distractions that can lead to impaired driving, but recently

there has been a marked increase around the world in the use of mobile phones by drivers that is becoming a growing concern for road safety.

The distraction caused by mobile phones can impair driving performance in a number of ways, e.g. longer reaction times (notably braking reaction time, but also reaction to traffic signals),and impaired ability to keep in the correct lane.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University studied the brain waves of drivers using cell phones -- and they found that even just listening to a conversation reduced the amount of brain activity devoted to driving by 37 percent. The quality of driving showed a "significant deterioration," according to the 2008 study.

Distracted Driving A 2005 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that drivers using cell

phones -- even hands-free -- were four times as likely to have an accident involving an injury.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that Nigeria has over 32,000 deaths due to road accidents every year most of which are attributed to drivers using their phones while driving.

Recommendation:

The safest approach on wheels is to switch off the phone, alternatively, drivers can use voicemail or message service to access missed calls when they stop or at the end of your journey.

Importantly, if you must take the call inform the caller that you are driving and that you wish to keep the conversation short and simple.

Pedestrian Accident

Those behind the wheel may not be the only ones at risk of a cell phone-related auto accident. So suggests a study published in January in the journal Pediatrics that shows that children are more distracted while crossing the street if they happen to be talking on a cell phone.

Using a virtual reality setting, researchers studied 77 children ages 10 and 11 to see what effect cell phone conversations had on their ability to make it across the street safety. What they found was that when children were on the cell phones, their attention to traffic reduced and the number of times a participant looked right or left went down 20 percent. The risk of getting hit by a car, or the number of close calls, went up 43 percent.

Recommendation:

Don’t use your mobile phones while walking along or crossing the road.

Cancer

Based on mixed epidemiological evidence on humans regarding an association between exposure to RF radiation from wireless phones and head cancers (glioma and acoustic neuroma), RF fields have been classified by the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).

Studies to date provide no indication that environmental exposure to RF fields, such as from base stations, increases the risk of cancer or any other disease.

Studies are ongoing to more fully assess potential long-term effects of mobile phone use.

WHO will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radiofrequency fields exposure by 2016.

Conclusion

While an increased risk of brain tumors from the use of mobile phones is not established, the increasing use of mobile phones and the lack of data for mobile phone use over time periods longer than 15 years warrant further research of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk. In particular, with the recent popularity of mobile phone use among younger people, and therefore a potentially longer lifetime of exposure, WHO has promoted further research on this group and is currently assessing the health impact of RF fields on all studied endpoints.

References

http://www.who.int/features/qa/30/en/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews

http://nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng/other-business/use-of-cellphone-while-driving-rings-grave

“Road Traffic Accidents in Nigeria: Causes and Preventive Measures.” . 2013