手机随方便 健康却遭殃

随着无线网络及手机的普及,世界卫生组织计划在今年着重开展手机等无线通讯工具对人们健康影响的调查研究。这些危害包括可能会导致癌症，所以在高科技的今天我们依然要注意健康哦。

The WHO says there are at least four and a half billion of us who use mobile phones, and the sheer volume of global use makes it important to investigate, monitor and assess whether cell phones pose a health risk.

London's Imperial College has already begun to track more than two million adult mobile phone users in the UK.

The study called COSMOS is expected to be the most thorough, checking on the group over the next 30 years. Researchers have permission to access the medical records of everyone taking part as well as their mobile phone company records.

Previous studies have focused on the brain. But lead researcher Dr. Mireille Toledano says it's vital to investigate other areas as well.

"Skin cancer, blood cancer like leukemia—we're looking at neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, and we're going to be looking at cardiovascular health and cerebral vascular health like strokes. That is because nowadays the way that we're using the phone, people aren't just using their phone by putting it to their head, so our concern is not just about people's head, but full body exposures as well."

Nowadays, children are growing up using mobile technology. The Karolinska Institute in Sweden is one of several centers that focus on the impact of wireless equipment on youngsters.

Mobile expert Flora Graham reviews the latest gadgets to hit the market for CNET the online technology site. She believes mobile companies will begin to adapt phone models as soon as there is any suggestion that there is a problem.

"If people start to worry about things, frankly it doesn't matter if the evidence is there. I mean look at GM (genetically modified) foods, for example. What really matters is, is the consumer going to buy it? So if people start worrying about the health effects of mobile phones, even if they're quite insignificant compared to other health effects from other things around them, manufacturers will want to try to target their designs at people's desires."

It's not just in communications that wireless technology is becoming essential. Companies are making a big push to expand the wireless market now that nearly everyone already has a phone.

Graham says this sort of technology is now being increasingly used in the field of medicine.

"We're talking about pills that have wireless transmitters in them that you take. They're activated inside your body, and they send feedback to your doctor or your health provider telling them how your body's responding to medication. Plasters with wireless communication devices on them and they'll deliver medication directly to your body and monitor how that's affecting you. So people who have, for example, heart arrhythmia, they can find it very difficult to diagnose because they have to go to the doctor every time. If you had a pill, or a plaster which had a wireless transmitter in it, it could constantly monitor your health."

Graham points out that the use of such equipment in the medical field is tightly regulated.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.