mobile phone

I bet you have probably owned one of these at some point in your life. I bet if you look around, almost everyone has one. In fact, some people own more than one at a given time. What am I talking about? In Australia we refer to them as mobile phones. In other parts of the world they are known as cell phones. Whatever name you know them by, I'm sure you're very familiar of their use (if you haven't heard or use a mobile/cell phone, I'm not sure where you have been all this time or what your situation is...but honestly, if you go into one of the major cities in the world, I can guarantee that you will see these little devices everywhere!)


They come in different styles to represent who you are, with matching accessories, different colours and even your personalized ring tones to choose from! In Australia, you even have a wide variety of payment plans to choose from, or just opt to pay as you go (pre-paid but you must buy the phone outright). A new model with new whiz bang features seem to come out every few weeks from the many different companies out there, trying to sell you the latest and best ever cell phone with camera, radio, ability to surf the net, gps, personal organiser, etc...and some models now have those special touch phone features like apple's iphone or the htc's touch phone. Literally, the market is just saturated with many cell phone models that are out there for sale and at different price ranges.

Which one do you have and why did you choose that particular mobile/cell phone? As for myself, I ended up getting a htc touch phone last christmas as it came with an organiser (which I needed). I was impressed with the touch technology it possessed, to allow me to navigate through my screens and menus. I have seen and did do some research on apple's iphone; unfortunately with all the bureaucratic issues between apple's iphone and one of our biggest telecommunications company here, (eg: contractual obligations, network access issues)...it turned me off from getting one at the time.

The cell phone was invented 35 years ago by Martin Cooper. He was a general manager for the systems division at Motorola and had an interest in embedded wireless devices. In an interview with the SMH newspaper on March 28th, 2008 Mr Cooper said that, "While the popularity of mobile phones has skyrocketed, with more than 3 billion people owning cell phones now compared with only 300,000 in 1984...he sees much more room for wireless in industries ranging from health care to power."

Although recent studies have proven to be inconclusive, in terms of any links between mobile/cell phones and cancer (in particular, brain tumors); a recent article published three days ago (July 24th, 2008) in the SMH newspaper wrote about how the head of a prominent cancer research institute (from the University of Pittsburgh) Dr. Ronald B. Herberman has warned that everyone should not be complacent when using their cell phone because of the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted. This is of particular concern in young children, as their brains are still developing. Eventhough, a lot of worldwide studies in this area have not found a link between cancer and cellular phone usage, Dr. Herberman argues that because it takes a very long time for science and a conclusive study in this area to come to a resolution, we should act now and should only use our cell phones for emergency use only.

I believe this is sound advise. I mean, when cigarettes were first sold and used by people it was glamorised and shown to be a really cool thing to take up. It has taken many years, but now Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research in the UK are urging the public to give up smoking, as research studies can now prove that the habit is linked to at least 14 different types of cancer which cause around 70,000 deaths every year.

Like I have said at the beginning of this post, many of us probably own one or two and know a lot of our families and friends that also own and use a cell phone; and our reliance of this device and technology has been increasing of late, so please use it wisely. Only use it for emergency or for short periods of time. Being proactive and promoting prevention is much more sensible than waiting for scientific research to prove whether or not cell phones is linked to cancer.