‘Keep mobile phones away from your body’

Stepping in to clear the air about the ill-effects of EMF radiation is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world—the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). In an exclusive conversation with its head Dr Radhey Shyam Sharma, we find that radio waves travelling from cell phone towers to your handset contain tiny doses of radiation that could be damaging to various aspects of your health. Recent findings have also proved that high levels of radioactivity can adversely affect the health of anybody living within a square kilometre of a cell phone tower.

Over the last four years, Sharma, along with other scientists at ICMR, have been conducting a prospective cohort study (a study with subjects having similar characteristics that may differ in certain factors in the scope of the findings) to ascertain how exposure to EMF radiation can have adverse effects on humans over certain periods of time. With subjects from all walks of life, they have come to fairly conclusive results about the health hazards posed by radiation from cell phone towers —mainly that they are not as harmless as we imagine them to be. Not only does EMF radiation take a toll on the reproductive organs of human beings, but it also causes irritability and lack of concentration. If you’ve been living in close proximity of a cell phone tower for some years now, chances are you’re already experiencing some of these symptoms.