• cellphone image by Philip Date from Fotolia.com
  
  You may have heard reports of the recent government warnings regarding habitual cellphone use. Both France and Germany have issued them, as well as the European Environment Agency. The warnings advise people to use wire headsets (and minimize the use of handsets) with the intended effect of reducing daily radiation exposure. The link between cellphones and sickness has not been irrefutably proven, but more and more research is coming to light that connects habitual cellphone use with serious illness.
  
  

Brain Tumors

• Top neurosurgeon Dr. Vini Khurana, after reviewing more than 100 studies on the subject, recently released a study that paints a troubling picture. According to his research, the radio signals emitted by cellular phones could potentially kill more people than smoking over the next decade. Dr. Khurana, an expert in the field of brain cancer, told the U.K.'s Independent newspaper that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumors."
  
  

RF Sickness

• During the Cold War era, hostiles purposefully bombarded the U.S. embassy in Moscow with radio frequency radiation around the clock. The workers in the embassy were diagnosed with "Radiofrequency Sickness Syndrome" ("RF Syndrome," for short), after long exposure to low-intensity, modulated microwave radiation. Sufferers reported headache, eye problems, chronic fatigue, skin irritation, vertigo, and disrupted sleep patterns.
  
  

Leukemia & Other Cancers

• Not one but two American ambassadors at the Moscow embassy during this time period developed leukemia, and blood tests on members of the embassy staff revealed DNA damage (a precursor to cancer). Recent research has focused on cellphone users' risk of glioma (a brain cancer that begins in the nerve-surrounding glial cells), acoustic neuroma (a tumor that grows in the ear tissue), meningioma (a cancer of the tissue that protects the brain and spinal cord) and cancer of the salivary glands.