The California Department of Public Health has released its first cellphone-use guidelines, warning that the devices could be hazardous due to radiation.
“Although the science is still evolving, there are concerns among some public-health professionals and members of the public regarding long-term, high-use exposure to the energy emitted by cellphones,” CDPH director Karen Smith said in a statement.
About 95 percent of Americans own a cellphone, and it’s now common for kids as young as 10 to have their own devices. But some experts warn that children may be more vulnerable to cellphones’ possible effects since their brains are still developing.
“It’s a particular concern because [children’s] bodies absorb more of this radiation, and their bodies are developing through these exposures,” Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and an advocate for cellphone safety, tells The Post.
Moskowitz — who successfully sued the CDPH in 2016 after finding out it had drafted a set of guidelines but hadn’t released them — says that while it’s too early to tell the long-term effects of continued exposure to cellphones, scientists have made some pretty alarming discoveries.
Several studies have linked cellphone radiation to diminished sperm count and sperm damage, while a recent study published in Scientific Reports found that magnetic field exposures during pregnancy — not just from cellphones, but also wireless networks, cell towers and other wireless devices — may almost triple the rate of miscarriages.
But the main concern is that radio-frequency energy from cellphones may cause cancers, particularly of the brain. The World Health Organization classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as “possibly carcinogenic,” but concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to make a definitive link.
Moskowitz says that the most important thing for researchers to figure out is what constitutes a safe level of human exposure to cellphone radiation.
In the meantime, he and the CDPH suggest certain precautionary measures, such as keeping your phone away from your body, reducing cellphone use when the signal is weak, avoiding using your phone to stream audio or video and turning off your Wi-Fi and phone while you sleep.
“Most people assume [these devices are] completely innocuous,” says Moskowitz. “They kind of treat them like just toys when in actuality they’re very powerful devices.”
