radiation

Cell phones and the radiation risk (roundup)

Based on new findings, the World Health Organization classifies cell phones as a potential cancer risk much like exhaust from gasoline-powered vehicles and lead. Meanwhile, CNET launches a series on the state of cell phone research and what consumers can do to protect themselves.

Cell phone radiation: A self-defense guide (FAQ) For many people, it's just not practical or realistic to avoid cell phones altogether. And it may not be necessary, if you take some of these suggestions for reducing your exposure. (Posted in Signal Strength by Marguerite Reardon) June 6, 2011 4:00 AM PDT

The trouble with the cell phone radiation standard … Read more

The trouble with the cell phone radiation standard

Editors' note: This is the second of a three-part series on issues related to cell phone radiation. Revisit Tuesday's story on the inconclusive state of research on cell phone radiation, look for Monday's story on what consumers can do to reduce their radiation exposure, or click here for a roundup of related coverage.

Steve Filippone, a 65-year-old New Jersey resident who sells indoor air filter equipment, is concerned about what his cell phone could do to his body. That's why he recently downloaded an app from a company called Tawkon that estimates the amount of cell phone … Read more

Twenty highest-radiation cell phones

Editors' note: Updated June 1, 2011.

We do a lot of top products lists here at CNET, and manufacturers are usually pretty excited to see their products on those lists. But this is one "top" list that manufacturers probably aren't too thrilled to find their products on.

As we note in our intro to the list, for a phone to pass FCC certification and be sold in the United States, its maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. In Europe, the level is capped at 2 watts per kilogram, whereas Canada allows … Read more

This Day in Tech: Apple's new cloud service, Twitter adds Follow button

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET News for Tuesday, May 31.

Cell phones and the radiation risk (roundup) Based on new findings, the World Health Organization classifies cell phones as a potential cancer risk. Meanwhile, CNET launches a series on the state of cell phone research. More

iTunes in the cloud? Apple's cloud service will be unveiled at next week's WWDC. And unless the iTunes maker can't complete licensing deals with music publishers, Apple will show off a new cloud music offering. See what we know… Read more

WHO: Cell phones may cause cancer

Radiation from cell phones could possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

In a report issued today, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is an arm of the WHO, said it now lists mobile phone use in the same category as lead, gasoline engine exhaust, and chloroform. Officially, cell phone radiation is listed as a "carcinogenic hazard."

Until today, the WHO's IARC had said that there were no adverse health effects from the use of cell phones. The wireless industry, including the CTIA lobbying group, and the Federal Communications Commission and U.… Read more

Cell phone radiation: Harmless or health risk?

Editors' note: This is the first of a three-part series on issues related to cell phone radiation. Look for Thursday's story on safety standards and testing and Monday's story on what consumers can do to reduce their radiation exposure.

Updated 11:00 a.m. PT: This story was updated with information from the IARC, an arm of the World Health Organization, that recently determined cell phones may cause cancer. A statement from the CTIA, wireless trade association was also added.

A typical day for Jonathan Hirshon, a San Francisco-based public relations representative, is spent with his iPhone 4 … Read more

App tracks direction of Fukushima radiation

It was only a matter of time until we had a decent app to track radiation from Fukushima.

Almost from the moment problems started at the Japanese nuclear power plant, the crowd was in on the action. At first it was just Webcams trained on geiger counters somewhere in Tokyo with the continuous image fed to UStream.

Then some dude from Portland got on Kickstarter and raised more than 35 grand to send more geiger counters to the country and aggregate their readings online with measurements from governments, nonprofits, and the crowd.

That last project also integrates with something called Pachube, an impressive global and crowdsourced platform for sharing real-time environmental and energy data. London-based Pachube also offers up an API and other tools for tinkerers and developers like Japan's Seigo Ishino, who created "Wind From Fukushima."

The free Android app is basically a mashup of radiation sensor readings, Google Maps, and wind data from across Japan--the result is a real-time display of not only where the radiation is right now, but also which way it's heading.… Read more

Cell phone radiation and the law that died

The strange tale of San Francisco's "Right to Know" ordinance finally came to an end last week when city officials permanently shelved the legislation in its current form. Indeed, it was a quiet end to a groundbreaking law that drew not only worldwide interest, but also the fervent opposition of the wireless industry.

Passed almost a year ago, the ordinance would have required cell phone retailers to display a cell phone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) at the point of sale and make available consumer information materials on cell phone radiation. The law (PDF) was the first … Read more

Japan radiation monitoring goes crowd, open source

A new open and crowdsourced initiative to deploy more geiger counters all over Japan looks to be a go. Safecast, formerly RDTN.org, recently met and exceeded its $33,000 fund-raising goal on Kickstarter, which should help Safecast send between 100 and 600 geiger counters to the catastrophe-struck country.

The data captured from the geiger counters will be fed into Safecast.org, which aggregates radiation readings from government, nonprofit, and other sources, as well as into Pachube, a global open-source network of sensors. Safecast is one of the larger crowdsourced monitoring efforts, not unlike a similar effort in the United States that predated the Japanese disaster.… Read more