Ah, another day, another claim that mobile phones are evil. I really do love it when the old ‘mobile phones will kill everyone’ stories pop up, like this particular one today, on Engadget Mobile. Apparently scientists at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran have concluded that mobile phones are, once again, a threat to people’s health. But not by causing brain tumours, or any of that, oh no sir.
Apparently now, they’ve decided that mobile phones will, in fact, make the fillings in your teeth release mercury.
Yep, that’s right, they’re pretty much saying that mobile phones will make your face melt…
The report they’ve issued suggests that the radiation given off by your mobile phone will react with the amalgam (an alloy of mercury and other metals) in your fillings, and cause it to release mercury. And as we all know from GCSE chemistry, mercury is rather unpleasant stuff, given that it’s really rather toxic. However, it’s very notable that none of the tests and experiments were carried out on massive sample sizes (30 people just isn’t enough, statistically speaking), so any results can’t be said to be fair and unbiased, with any certainty.
Also, the research team themselves go to great lengths to state that the levels of mercury released (which I’m not convinced is caused by mobile phones, anyway) are well below maximum safe levels. So, what we in fact have here is a study about mobile phones that’s being billed as saying mobile phones will kill you when in fact it says nothing of the sort. So, far from it being bad science, as I had first assumed, it’s people misquoting a genuine scientific research project, that hasn’t actually found that mobile phones are dangerous!
Cue the knee-jerk reactionaries starting up their anti-mobile phone campaigns, despite that, in 3, 2, 1…
Meanwhile, in the real world, I shall continue using my mobile phone, and I’ve got loads of fillings. And if and when I get a Sony Ericsson X1, I shall use that, too, and frankly, not worry about my phone melting my face off…
If you want a phone with a SAR rating WELL below the maximum safe score (it comes in at 0.57, well below the highest safe score of about 1.6), grab the Sony Ericsson X1 today!