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Dr. Mercola
September 06 2008
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Why Can't You Use Your Cell Phone on a Plane?

cell phone, mobile phoneDespite what some flight attendants might say, making a call from your cell phone probably won't send your plane crashing to the ground. So why can’t you use it?

Your cell phone can interfere with avionics in theory. But in practice, it's not very likely. Cockpits and communications systems have been shielded against electromagnetic interference since the 1960s.

What’s really going on is resistance from the call carriers. When phones ping for signals at 35,000 feet, they can hit hundreds of towers at once, necessitating complicated roaming agreements. The technical problem is not insurmountable, but there isn’t enough demand for action. Only 16 percent of U.S. fliers are interested in using cell phones on planes; most people are vehemently opposed.

Still, OnAir, an air-to-ground communications company, already has an airborne cellular system in European trials, and by the end of the year plans to put the system on dozens of planes.

Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:
It’s good to hear that most Americans are “vehemently opposed” to cell phones on planes -- they should be vehemently opposed! Microwave exposure from cell phones and even Wi-Fi inside the plane would be magnified by reflections from the metal skin of the aircraft, making what is now one of the quietest microwave environments (in-flight) into one of the most intense -- something like a very-low-power microwave oven.

For the same reason, cell phone use should be banned at all times on commercial aircraft. No one should be allowed to use their cell phones or laptop Wi-Fi inside a plane before takeoff or after landing, even while sitting on the tarmac.

Airliners are worse than cars in this sense because there’s much less glass area relative to reflective metal. When you use a cordless phone or cell phone while standing near a metal door or refrigerator you also increase your exposure because of this reflective effect.

And as in all such situations, the young are much more vulnerable than adults, because of their thinner skulls, smaller heads, and still-developing brains and nervous systems. Not only should children not use cell phones, but adults should not use them (or Wi-Fi) around children, especially in a car, bus, train, or, even worse, in a windowless van -- especially in light of the fact that brain cancer has now overtaken leukemia as the number one cancer killer of children.

How Cell Phone Microwaves Interfere With Your Body

There are likely very few places left on earth, save those areas that are sparsely populated or, say, at the bottom of the ocean, that are not being bombarded by microwave radiation and electromagnetic frequencies from wireless devices.

The risk of being exposed to these frequencies increases the closer you get to them, but that doesn’t mean you need to be the one holding the cell phone or sitting next to the Wi-Fi router to be impacted. If cell phones are allowed on planes, for instance, those sitting around the person on a cell phone or laptop connected to the Internet will also be exposed to the microwaves.

But how, exactly, does this harm your health?

Your body is essentially a very sensitive electromagnetic instrument, controlled by highly complex and orderly oscillatory electrical processes. Each one of these electro-biological processes vibrate at a specific frequency -- some of which happen to be close to those used in modern GSM cell phone technology.

The pulsating, low-intensity microwaves from mobile phones can exert subtle, non-thermal influences on your body simply because microwaves are waves. As such, they have properties other than just intensity (which is the only part regulated by safety guidelines).

Therefore, much in the same way as a radio can receive interference, your biological processes can be interfered with by the oscillatory aspect of the incoming radiation.

Highly organized electrical processes at the cellular level are especially vulnerable to interference from cell phone radiation, because their frequency happens to fall within the microwave range. 

Many of these biological activities are influenced by your metabolism, meaning the effect of the radiation will be different from one person to another. 

The effect could also depend on the type of cell phone used, as different cell phones emit radiation at different frequencies.

Ultra-low intensity microwaves can affect processes as fundamental as cell division, and the TDMA frequencies of 8-34 Hz, and the DTX pulse frequency at 2 Hz, correspond to the frequencies of alpha and delta brain waves.

How to Protect Yourself From Cell Phone Radiation

I truly believe the widespread use of wireless devices is a public health disaster waiting to happen -- much like smoking turned out to be. So, I’ve written an entire book on the subject, which is due out in 2009.

Until then, here are my best guidelines to protect yourself from cell phone damage. Feel free to forward them on to your friends and loved ones, or print them out and post them someplace you see often.

• Children Should Never Use Cell Phones: Barring a life-threatening emergency, children should not use a cell phone, or a wireless device of any type. Children are far more vulnerable to cell phone radiation than adults, because of their thinner skull bones.

• Pregnant Women Should Also Avoid Cell Phones: Women who use mobile phones when pregnant may be more likely to give birth to children with behavioral problems.

• Reduce Your Cell Phone Use: Turn your cell phone off more often. Reserve it for emergencies or important matters.

• Use A Land Line At Home And At Work: Although more and more people are switching to using cell phones as their exclusive phone contact, it is a dangerous trend and you can choose to opt out of the madness.

• Reduce or Eliminate Your Use of Other Wireless Devices: You would be wise to cut down your use of these devices. Just as with cell phones, it is important to ask yourself whether or not you really need to use them every single time. If you must use a portable home phone, use the older kind that operates at 900 MHz. They are no safer during calls, but at least they do not broadcast constantly even when no call is being made.

• Use Your Cell Phone Only Where Reception Is Good: The weaker the reception, the more power your phone must use to transmit, and the more power it uses, the more radiation it emits, and the deeper the dangerous radio waves penetrate into your body. Ideally, you should only use your phone with full bars and good reception.

• Turn Your Cell Phone Off When Not In Use: As long as your cell phone is on, it emits radiation intermittently, even when you are not actually making a call.

• Keep Your Cell Phone Away From Your Body When It Is On: The most dangerous place to be, in terms of radiation exposure, is within about six inches of the emitting antenna. You do not want any part of your body within that area.

• Use Safer Headset Technology: Wired headsets will certainly allow you to keep the cell phone farther away from your body. However, if a wired headset is not well-shielded -- and most of them are not -- the wire itself acts as an antenna attracting ambient information carrying radio waves and transmitting radiation directly to your brain. Make sure that the wire used to transmit the signal to your ear is shielded.

The best kind of headset to use is a combination shielded wire and air-tube headset. These operate like a stethoscope, transmitting the information to your head as an actual sound wave; although there are wires that still must be shielded, there is no wire that goes all the way up to your head.
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Community Comments ( 41 )
 		Comment on this Article
  
  
SoCalSicilian
 [ Joined on 03/08 ] [ Posted on September 6, 2008 ]
20 Points        
   
 
Novice User

OK, OK, OK!  For all you "Engineer types", the real reason that you will "most likely" not get signal for a cell phone on a plane is NOT the distance, it is the fact that the "tranceivers" on a cell tower are NOT omni directional.  The tranceiver MUST be pointed or aimed in the direction of the sky in order to obtain a signal at 35,000 feet.  And the towers are pointed to maximize the GROUND coverage!  In order to get consistant cell coverage in a plane you would HAVE TO have a system installed on the plane that has a direct uplink to a satellite or a microwave transmitter to the ground.  That is what is installed on planes with the phones installed on planes now (the few that have them, you know the ones on the back of the headrest?)

That again is the reason that the "cell calls" repoted to have taken place on 911 are total BS!  Would Not, Could Not, DID NOT happen!  The plane that supposudly went down in Pennsylvania did not have that system and even if it did, the guy was "supposudly" in the bathroom when he made the call to his grandmother that he had to give his first and last name too (what a crock!).

I worked in the cellular industry for 12 years and this information was discussed at length and depth after 911.  Anyone with ANY common sense and basic knowledge of how cellular works knows that the calls from the plane on 911 NEVER happened!

There are very few instances where you do get some "skip" and might recieve a text mssge or a call.  But you would NEVER be able to hold a call for more than about 5-10 seconds anywhere above about 15,000 feet and NEVER at 35,000 feet.  That is simply a fairy tail, much like the government finding an UNSCATHED MAHOMMAD OTTA PASSPORT in the rubble of the twin towers.

“It is the duty of the Patriot to protect his country from its government” - Thomas Payne

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither" – Benjamin Franklin

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Islander
 [ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Moderator User
  Mercola

THANK YOU, SoCal! That needed to be said...by someone with the qualifications to be credible, as you are. A lot of us so-called 9/11 Truthers knew this but did not have the industry credentials to be convincing. I hope others are reading and attending, because this is just one of the thousands of pieces of damning evidence.
Mercola
  
tubesman
 [ Joined on 09/08 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
-6 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I do wonder why I bother with this newsletter. If you believe all that's here you'd hide in  a cave, hunt birds and eat raw meat and grass all day. If cellphones are as bad as the doctor says then why isn't their an epidemic of illness worldwide from using cellphones? consider the power levels involved from a cell tower at the street level. Pico watts. From the phone, that could be an issue, but I've never heard of an epidemic worldwide of health problems caused by cellphones. And the antennas ARE aimed DOWN. Not up.
Mercola
  
fly
 [ Joined on 09/08 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
4 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Your explanation of a lack of signal on aircraft over 15,000 feet is correct. However, I have heard the tapes of those calls you say did not happen on 911. I am a crewmember and lost friends on those flights and have heard their last words. The planes were at low altitudes before impact. One American Airlines flight attendant was on a call as it impacted the tower that fateful day.

Some folks can sound more knowledgable than they are...

  
  
Mr.AK
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on August 21, 2008 ]
15 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
I have heard that getting a cell phone connection is virtually impossible from the cruising altitude of a jetliner - there's about a one in a thousand chance of connecting with a land-based cell tower (without added technological assistance, such as a transmitter of some kind installed on the plane to boost the signal). Curiously, this didn't prevent a dozens of cell phones calls to be made from hijacked planes on 9/11. Hmmmm.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
aceventura
 [ Joined on 09/08 ]  [ Posted on September 5, 2008]
17 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

If you watched "Loose Change" you know the reason why.
Mercola
  
illies17
 [ Joined on 05/08 ]  [ Posted on September 5, 2008]
15 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Loose change will show you the reason for a lot of things....a lot of scary things.
Mercola
  
Veslemor
 [ Joined on 12/07 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

That "fact" was actually one of the problems I had with the movie Loose Change.  I accidentally left my cell on on a plane once, and noticed midflight that I had four bars of service.  What other misinformation was in this film?  I'm skeptical of everyone, even the skeptics.  I don't believe what anyone has to say when it comes to 9-11.
Mercola
  
CaptainKirk
 [ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on September 8, 2008]
       
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Veslemor,

 Trust me. 4 bars of signal WITHOUT DIALING is meaningless.  It means your phone sees signal.  Coming from many places, in this case.

 Connecting to them, and HOLDING them is a different problem.  I have had

the phone ring for the same reason, but could not answer it.  Fundamentally,

the algorithm for handing your call off from Cell to Cell is not designed for plane speeds...

Kirk Out!
  
  
rguyah
 [ Joined on 03/08 ] [ Posted on September 6, 2008 ]
12 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Cell phones will only work until about 15,000 feet without additional technology installed on airplanes.  How can I say this?  I am an electrical engineer and I have actually tried this.  I know the phone will not interfere with the craft systems so I gave it a shot and signal is lost around 15,000 and could not be regained at a higher altitude.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
westerncoloradogirl
 [ Joined on 06/07 ] [ Posted on September 6, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Novice User

I like that cell phones must be turned off, if for no other reason than it makes for a more peaceful flight. Can you imagine the chatter if they were allowed on flights. I don't want to listen to dozens of business calls at once. Ahhhhh!

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
WAY-OF-LIFE
 [ Joined on 07/08 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

+ 1 TO YOU GIRL, I WAS MAKING THE SOME POINT IN MY COMMENT. CELL PHONES SERVE US WELL IN MANY WAYS, BUT I DON'T THINK IN A SPACE WHERE I CAN'T GET UP AND WALK AWAY IF I HAD TOO. ALOHA, AND MAHALO FROM HAWAII.
  
  
Aaltrude
 [ Joined on 04/07 ] [ Posted on August 20, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Moderator User
Let the call carriers continue opposing the use of cell phones in planes then the innocent bystanders won't be bombarded with the harmful signals emitted by these phones while trapped with them inside the plane.
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
rrochon
 [ Joined on 07/07 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
7 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

Well, thank heavens cell phones cannot be used on planes. That's all I need while being trapped on a plane, to have someone jabbering out loud on who came to dinner last night, or what color Janie's brides maids will wear, etc., etc. Finally, a good regulation.
  
  
marvinlzinn
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on September 6, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User

I would prefer to have a little signal transmitter in my pocket that with one button will immediately block and shut down every cell phone within hearing distance. There is nothing better than SILENCE!

marvin

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
WillC.
 [ Joined on 09/08 ]  [ Posted on September 6, 2008]
-1 Points        
   
This user is BELOW novice level and all their comments need to be reviewed with great caution.
  Mercola

While they are illegal in many places, here's your answer: www.ladyada.net/.../wavebubble
  
  
Katharine
 [ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on September 6, 2008 ]
5 Points