HEALTH EFFECTS OF 800 MHZ RADIOS

[fireant]

Have heard of 800 mhz radios having health effects on officers what kind of problems are they having?? and is this true???

fireant

 

[fmon]

Have heard of 800 mhz radios having health effects on officers what kind of problems are they having?? and is this true???

fireant

Where did you hear this? With your note, I too have heard this for the first time.

 

[N_Jay]

FUD from people who don't undersand everything they think they know.

 

[fireant]

Read in the oklahoma forum they can cause tumors and other problems just wandering what all they cause!!!

fireant

 

[k8tmk]

The effects of human exposure to RF radiation has been kicked around for many years. An "expert" threw darts at a dartboard to determine what the magic number is that humans should not exceed.

I actually had to do a study for a local AM/FM radio station, WHFB, to make sure the public was safe from too much RF exposure. The amount is based upon the frequency involved, the transmitter power level, etc. It turned out that the public should not get within 15 feet of our AM tower with a frequency of 1060 kHz and 5000 watts daytime power level (remember, the entire tower is the antenna). At the FM site, the public should not be allowed closer that 250 feet of the antenna (99.9 MHz at 50,000 watts ERP). The FM site was not a problem at all, because the antenna was near the top of a 500-foot tower. Someone would have to climb halfway up the tower to get within 250 feet of the antenna.

To my knowledge, it has never been proved how much RF exposure is dangerous to humans, if at all.

Randy

 

[N_Jay]

Read in the oklahoma forum they can cause tumors and other problems just wandering what all they cause!!!

fireant

Just remember, the forum is the medium, not the source.

The quotation "reading in a forum" has about the same meaning as "reading from a piece of paper"! :twisted:

 

[Thayne]

I remember some anecdotal evidence published some time back about some policemen that had higher levels of testicular cancer that they blamed on the portables proximity to the "Cohones" (sp?) while transmitting----sounds pretty far fetched to me :?

 

[kikito]

I remember some anecdotal evidence published some time back about some policemen that had higher levels of testicular cancer that they blamed on the portables proximity to the "Cohones" (sp?) while transmitting----sounds pretty far fetched to me :?

Is spelled "Cojones" by the way.


I remember hearing about similar problems with the handheld radar guns many years ago. Some officers that used the handheld radars and would lay them to rest on their lap while they waited for the next "victim" to come. And they claim the got cancer from it.

 

[K5MAR]

I remember some anecdotal evidence published some time back about some policemen that had higher levels of testicular cancer that they blamed on the portables proximity to the "Cohones" (sp?) while transmitting----sounds pretty far fetched to me :?

I believe that was allegedly due to the officers' habit of sticking their handheld radar unit between their legs while working traffic. Not the brightest thing to do, you gotta admit.

Mark S.

PS: It's "cojones"!

 

[kikito]

Is there an echo in here? Am I the echo? :lol:

 

[K5MAR]

Is there an echo in here? Am I the echo? :lol:

No, I think we both posted at about the same time. My post was actually up first, briefly, then yours came through with an earlier timestamp and bumped mine down. I don't know if the site uses it's own clock to timestamp posts or if it uses the timestamp from the sender's computer. Might be something to play with sometime.

Mark S.

 

[kikito]

Is it possible that I may have hit the reply button first but since I had to stop typing for a while to tend to other things, it still used the time stamp of when I hit the reply button and not from when I actually submitted the post :?:

 

[SAR923]

The only clear health issue with higher frequencies is an increase in cataracts in people with many years of exposure to the tips of antennas being in close proximity to their eye. This is an obvious problem with holding a cell phone to your head. I'd be more worried about the 2.4 gHz wireless phones since your starting to get into the frequency range where exposure in close proximity to the antenna tip is an issue. A good reason to use a headphone and keep the antenna away from your eye.

 

[CAT]

Maybe someone here can make some sense of this - does this mean that fat (5.33/0.08) is more or less susceptible to damage than blood (59.192.11)?



Tissue Dielectric Properties
Frequency = 1900.00 MHz

Tissue Type -- Epslon -- Sigma
Bladder -- 18.287127 -- 0.556129
Blood -- 59.195789 -- 2.113665
Bone_Cancellous -- 19.213427 -- 0.619844
Bone_Cortical -- 11.716689 -- 0.292404
Bone_Marrow_Infiltrat -- 10.618261 -- 0.364965
Bone_Marrow_Not_Inf -- 5.359567 -- 0.072248
Breast_Fat -- 5.250882 -- 0.099755
Cartilage -- 39.985783 -- 1.353862
Cerebellum -- 45.884365 -- 1.765019
Cerebro_Spinal_Fluid -- 67.055649 -- 2.997276
Colon(Large_Intest.) -- 54.934162 -- 1.641513
Cornea -- 52.574863 -- 1.919736
Dura -- 42.756443 -- 1.368865
Eye_Tissue(Sclera) -- 53.417667 -- 1.661908
Fat -- 5.338405 -- 0.082090
Fat(Mean) -- 10.989984 -- 0.201098
Gall_Bladder -- 58.126629 -- 1.698913
Gall_Blad_Bile -- 68.953964 -- 2.368638
Grey_Matter -- 49.881302 -- 1.450184
Heart -- 56.063240 -- 1.840534
Kidney -- 54.130901 -- 2.018959
Lens_Cortex -- 45.238697 -- 1.196926
Lens_Nucleus -- 34.542381 -- 0.829318
Liver -- 44.012112 -- 1.345636
Lung(Inflated) -- 20.866415 -- 0.660769
Lung(Deflated) -- 49.218849 -- 1.335827
Muscle(Parallel_Fiber) -- 55.191124 -- 1.499616
Muscle(Transverse_F) -- 53.418453 -- 1.396326
Nerve(Spinal_chord) -- 30.743879 -- 0.877753
Ovary -- 46.101280 -- 1.882531
Skin(Dry) -- 38.714371 -- 1.224557
Skin(Wet) -- 43.682064 -- 1.283021
Small_Intestine -- 55.647621 -- 2.763648
Spleen -- 53.607277 -- 1.845264
Stomach_Esop_Du. -- 63.058311 -- 1.769339
Tendon -- 44.080601 -- 1.268387
Testis_Prostate -- 58.435921 -- 1.757854
Thyroid_Thymus -- 57.995132 -- 1.565774
Tongue -- 53.417667 -- 1.431374
Trachea -- 40.385582 -- 1.161171
Uterus -- 58.754154 -- 1.831674
Vitreous_Humour -- 68.524101 -- 2.092460
White_Matter -- 36.868435 -- 0.957516

Tissue Permittivity Conductivity Density(app.)
Avg. Brain 43.374870 1.203850 1030.0
Avg. Skull 15.465057 0.456124 1850.0
Avg. Muscle 54.304787 1.447971 1040.0

The tissue parameters provided here are derived from the 4-Cole-Cole Analysis in "Compilation of the Dielectric Properties of Body Tissues at RF and Microwave Frequencies" by Camelia Gabriel, Brooks Air Force Technical Report AL/OE-TR-1996-0037.
These tissue properties are commonly used for evaluating SAR with measurement or computational methods. Other tissue parameters are also acceptable provided they do not underestimate SAR.

 

[N_Jay]

Maybe someone here can make some sense of this - does this mean that fat (5.33/0.08) is more or less susceptible to damage than blood (59.192.11)?


. . . .

That would be jumping to a conclusion.

All that chart shows is dielectric properties.

From that you could get absobtion, but even absoption does not map directly to damage.

And if it did that would only be damage from apsorptive energy, i.e. heating. It would not account for damage due to EM radiation effects, or damage due to secondary effects such as offset hormone levels due to em field effects of nerve receptors.

 

[Thayne]

At least I realized I MIGHT be spelling the spanish word for balls wrong 8)

 

[N_Jay]

At least I realized I MIGHT be spelling the spanish word for balls wrong 8)

Maybe the Admin will put a spell check feature on this site? :wink:

I know I need it!

 

[Voyager]

Have heard of 800 mhz radios having health effects on officers what kind of problems are they having?? and is this true???

fireant

Where did you hear this? With your note, I too have heard this for the first time.

First time? You Fmon? Wow!

This has been touted since the release of Portable Cellphones. (circa mid-1980s)

Since it's touted that 600 mW Cellphones cause cancer, it's not a far stretch to realize that 4W (4000mW) portables operating in the same frequency band would have even more potential to cause cancer.

The higher the frequency, and the greater the power, the more potential there is. It doesn't take long before you are at microwave frequencies and power levels, and we all know what that can do to organic matter.

Joe M.

 

[N_Jay]

Have heard of 800 mhz radios having health effects on officers what kind of problems are they having?? and is this true???

fireant

Where did you hear this? With your note, I too have heard this for the first time.

First time? You Fmon? Wow!

This has been touted since the release of Portable Cellphones. (circa mid-1980s)

Since it's touted that 600 mW Cellphones cause cancer, it's not a far stretch to realize that 4W (4000mW) portables operating in the same frequency band would have even more potential to cause cancer.

The higher the frequency, and the greater the power, the more potential there is. It doesn't take long before you are at microwave frequencies and power levels, and we all know what that can do to organic matter.

Joe M.

Don't forget about the time factor.

How many minuets of TX does a person use a radio in a day vs. how many minuets of TX on a phone.

Again, the issue is far more complex than most people realize.
There are a lot of smart people studying it to death. (pardon the pun) If the answer was obvious there would alreay be an answer!

 

[N4DES]

Have heard of 800 mhz radios having health effects on officers what kind of problems are they having?? and is this true???

fireant

Where did you hear this? With your note, I too have heard this for the first time.

First time? You Fmon? Wow!

This has been touted since the release of Portable Cellphones. (circa mid-1980s)

Since it's touted that 600 mW Cellphones cause cancer, it's not a far stretch to realize that 4W (4000mW) portables operating in the same frequency band would have even more potential to cause cancer.

The higher the frequency, and the greater the power, the more potential there is. It doesn't take long before you are at microwave frequencies and power levels, and we all know what that can do to organic matter.

Joe M.

Ummm...don't you mean 3 watt 800 MHz radios.

An important item that you have to look at here is duty cycle between cell phones and 2 way radios. While 800 MHz radios have higher power (3 watts vs .6 watts) the use of the cellphone is much greater. The average PTT is 4 seconds vs. a 3 to 5 minute phone call. Seems to me that the cellphone would cause more damage because it's transmitting longer.

One thing I read a while back is that radiation is additive and longer exposure to lower doses is worse that a short dose at a higher power level. This is due to the warming effect that occurs and we all know how long a microwave takes to heat something up.