Home phones can be dangerous

Agencies Tuesday,
February 19, 2008

Home phones can be dangerous  

LONDON: After cancer warnings due to mobiles, the home phone could also put your health in danger, a new study suggests. Digital wireless phones, used in millions of homes could be just as problematic as are mobiles, researchers claimed. Digitally enhanced cordless telephones — Dects — are the main source of radiation at home where people spend a lot of time, causing frequent headaches, fatigue, heart palpitations, concentration and sleep problems, according to a recent survey by the Dutch Electrohypersensitivity Foundation.

These phones operate using the same technology as wi-fi computer systems and mobile phones — with the base station acting like a miniature mobile phone mast. “The risks are the same as for mobiles, but they haven’t been studied because researchers thought the Dect operated like a landline,’’ Daily Mail quoted cancer specialist Lennart Hardell from the University Hospital, Sweden as saying.

“Habitual users have a three-fold risk of acoustic neuroma and a four-fold risk of a malignant brain tumour,’’ stated Hardell. Its more harmful as the base station is powering up 24-hours-a-day and the handset is picking up and sending signals whenever it’s held to the head, with the signal travelling through walls and ceilings too.