Dear @Marwan, very big impact is present, of course. Millions of Bees Die - Are Electromagnetic Signals To Blame!- good reading!

Environmental impacts of electromagnetic waves of mobile phones on human

health describe all the negative effects of electro-wave pollution!

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/03/06/millions_of_bees_die_are_electromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm

http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/ABR-vol4-iss2/ABR-2013-4-2-80-84.pdf

http://www.scientificbulletin.upb.ro/rev_docs_arhiva/full631_756737.pdf

These dangers, are already in home, work place and hence exceptional risk.

http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ir_intro/ir_intro.htm

Dear @Marwan, very big impact is present, of course. Millions of Bees Die - Are Electromagnetic Signals To Blame!- good reading!

Environmental impacts of electromagnetic waves of mobile phones on human

health describe all the negative effects of electro-wave pollution!

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/03/06/millions_of_bees_die_are_electromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm

http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/ABR-vol4-iss2/ABR-2013-4-2-80-84.pdf

http://www.scientificbulletin.upb.ro/rev_docs_arhiva/full631_756737.pdf

Thanks for the answers, folks! Though I am by no means an expert in this field, it seems that the establishment of more telecommunications systems has raised some environmental and health issues. Willingly or not, they have become part of the human environment. Though helpful, they are believed to have some negative health effects on people living near them or where they are located. It is, therefore, argued that telecom systems to be hazardous to health!

Here is one more link, dear friends.  The following list (including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, chronic fatigue) 'represents diseases and health problems that are either a direct result of electromagnetic radiation poisoning or are closely associated with it. Keep in mind that all health issues will be affected to some degree by exposure to EMF radiation, whether electric, magnetic, wireless or ionizing radiation, since it weakens the immune system, stresses the body and damages healthy cells.'

http://www.best-emf-health.com/dangers-of-electromagnetic-radiation.html

Shall we, therefore, dear Miranda, rid ourselves of cell phones and infrared systems altogether? Can we do without?!

My master thesis was on effect of EMF (1 Gauss magnetic field) on reproduction in lab animals, I found some abnormalities in sperm functions and testicular microscopic architecture. Fortunately these changes were slightly reversed after removing the EMF exposure by 1.5 months. Several reports have been and still be published on the effects of EMF and there is a journal specified on this topic named "Bioelectromagnetics" http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-186X 

Very valuable info to know, dear Islam!

Dear Prof Marwan, I normally use my phones for data plans and messages only; and making  and receiving emergency calls.  So do my friends :)  But we cannot do without our phones, and each one has 2 phones.  I think none of us can go backward, the technology is here to stay, for better or for worse...

Dear Profs and friends, for less POLLUTION, LESS TRANSMISSION of  dangerous waves consider this - something related and funny that you may like:)

'We're living an era where capturing moments using our phones is more important than actually living these moments with whoever is beside us.'

''Smartphones has already replaced camera, calendars, notebooks, alarm clocks etc in our life, don't let them replace you in your family.''

http://www.searchquotes.com/quotation/We%27re_living_an_era_where_capturing_moments_using_our_phones_is_more_important_than_actually_living_/592190/

Yes, Dear Marwan,  Electromagnetic radiation is a form of environmental pollution we have to endure as side effects of modern technology.

A review on the impact of radio frequency radiation from wireless telecommunications on wildlife is presented. Electromagnetic radiation is a form of environmental pollution which may hurt wildlife.

Phone masts located in their living areas are irradiating continuously some species that could suffer long-term effects, like reduction of their natural defenses, deterioration of their health, problems in reproduction and

reduction of their useful territory through habitat deterioration.

Electromagnetic radiation can exert an aversive behavioral response in rats,

bats and birds such as sparrows. Therefore microwave and radio frequency pollution constitutes a potential cause for the decline of animal populations and deterioration of health of plants living near phone masts. To measure these effects urgent specific studies are necessary.

Pathophysiology. 2009 Aug;16(2-3):191-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pathophys.2009.01.007. 

http://www.wifiinschools.org.uk/resources/Balmori+2009.pdf

Dear All,

Regarding that our extraterritorial brothers are eager to communicate with us, some of this electromagnetic garbage may hamper our first meeting. (:-)

Probably the higher frequencies (>1.8 Ghz) could be dangerous, but all the studies are so contradictory each other that I cannot conclude. Probably this is the task of those 'researches': to avoid us from a clear decision.

So, our friends, we are subjects of a big experiment and after 30 years we will probably count the new and old kind of cancers, due to EM radiation...

Dear Demetris,

Thanks for the very informative contribution. But what do scientists say we should do? What can we do? What is our future like (given all these technologies)? Are we better off without them (at least health wise)?

Since nobody announce nothing, we have to take care for our health alone, sorry, it is a failure of modern science, but I cannot prove it!

So, prefer as long as you can, ethernet connections to internet and use your cellphone for emergency cases only.

I hardly see sparrows now days in Mumbai due to mobile towers.

May be we need to find some alternative or better technology which takes care of our nature. 

The modern tools of communication are indispensable. Of course, they cause pollution and they may affect the health in a negative way (This is the cost we have to pay in order to use them). The utility in urgent situations(such as warnings of closed roads during a bad weather)is a bonus for the TV & the radio. When one is stuck in an elevator or when one becomes under ruins of a building during an earthquake, the cell phone plays a vital role in saving lives. The cell phone has been very helpful in bringing ambulances, fire brigades, and the police to sites of accidents. Many crimes were photoed by the cell phones.

The use of such tools ought to be well controlled. Excessive usage of them is counter-productive (such as spending more than 3 billion dollars/ year by the youth of  an Arabic country to send short "romantic" messages which appear on TV screens). 

I cannot agree more, dear Nizar!

All types of modern telecommunication technologies, such as communication satellites, the radio, the TV, the telephone, the cell phone, the radar and the Internet, have negative effects on health.

All of telecommunication technologies have also bad effects on social relations, and some of them on the values.

Use of modern technologies is inevitable in our daily lives. There are precautionary measures we can follow to reduce the negative side effects.

In May 2011, the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer announced it was classifying electromagnetic fields from mobile phones and other sources as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" and advised the public to adopt safety measures to reduce exposure, like use of hands-free devices or texting.

Some national radiation advisory authorities have recommended measures to minimize exposure to their citizens. Examples of the recommendations are:

• • Use hands-free to decrease the radiation to the head.
• • Keep the mobile phone away from the body.
• • Do not use telephone in a car without an external antenna.

Several nations have advised moderate use of mobile phones for children.

Latest Findings on the Health Risks of Excessive Mobile Phone Use is fine paper about this issue!   "An overview of the latest research pertaining to biological effects of mobile phone radiation is presented in this paper. Having in mind the enormous popularity of mobile phone use worldwide, a serious concern about the health risks has appeared. Some research results in this area as well as recently published alert of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation are presented ...."

http://www.mtt-serbia.org.rs/microwave_review/pdf/Vol18No1_05_VMarkovic.pdf

Roadmap:

1. The world community recognized that the electromagnetic field of artificial origin is an important significant environmental factor with high biological activity. (http://www.amazon.com/Electromagnetic-Fields-Life-A-Presman/dp/0306303957)

2. Comprehensive study of the major anthropogenic sources of electromagnetic radiation, as well as the biological effects of the electromagnetic radiation on living organisms.

3. Taxation of economic activity from the use of sources of electromagnetic radiation, depending on the damage done.

4. The utilization of these taxes (p. 3) to create new sources of radiation on fundamentally new principles, not bringing harm to living organisms.

yes it is

examples : Deaths of birds due to radiation from telecom towers

You are absolutely right, these systems have a big negative effect to the living organisms. All of us agree that the cell phones signals make worse the human health if they are using very often and it depends how their signals are strong in treated area. But we always do not pay attention for the cell phone company antennas, where and what distance they are located. They may install these big antennas to our work places (usually they need for big buildings). My opinion is the companies should keep in mind the negative effects of these antennas to their staffs before giving an agreement. 

Dear All,

Thanks for the very informative in-put. It seems that these systems have a very big negative effect in the living organisms creatures. And some of you have said that it has been already tested!

You have won my consent, dear Francesca. Thank you, and have a good day!

I think that we have a logical trap: We first promote a pollution process (smoking, car driving and generally oil using with CO2 creation, EM radiation with cellphones, WiFi etc) and then, as Francesca correctly focused, we put a tax on the damage!

Oh tempora, oh mores!

Demetris,

Ain't that wonderful: put a tax on our mess?!

There are 2 aspects of such "pollution": an additional pollution by electromagnetic field itself (from the mobile phones, WiFI etc) and "informational" pollution. In some cases second "pollution " is even more dangerous to compare with direct one because people have been overloaded with information produced by others, but at the same time have less time to think. There is should be some kind of "silence" time, at which people have to be "offline" from any electronic device in order to create his own opinion.

Beautifully said, my friend, Taras! We are overloaded with hi-tech products and have almost no  time to think! And, in my view, this is another form of pollution (that of thought)!

Yes, the old times every Hollywood star was smoking in the movie, now the half price in cigarettes is taxes!

Now, all of us try to buy the new x phone... after some years its price will be at half a pure tax!

Crazy times!

Can this whole situation be a kind of self-annihilation (given all the advances, technological and otherwise, our humanity has achieved)?

Francesca,

"Slot machines" is a great metaphor for the current context.  People put money into a slot machine and get nothing in return; they hope for a big pay day.  That relates to your previous comment about the meaning of life; I agree, for most people the answer is money.  And today people no longer want to work to earn it; they expect it to be given to them by the government (which is really just the tax money of those who do work), or by a slot machine, or by a lottery ticket.  Could this degradation of mental attitude (selfishness, intellectual laziness, indifference to others, etc.) be caused by what Marwan called the pollution of thought?

Electro - pollution

• The electromagnetic radiation pervading the environment is now increasing mortality at communication towers over 200 ft. may be a threat to the healthy  population of birds and electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers may probably be the reasons for the vanishing

• Affects on birds exposed to the electromagnetic field radiation and losing navigational ability. They get disoriented and begin to fly in different direction

Action Taken in India

Monitoring the proliferation of EMF radiation, ambient EMF radiation monitoring network  in the line of national ambient air monitoring network, ambient noise monitoring network, weather monitoring stations, etc

Government of India, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Department of Telecommunications, REPORT OF THE INTER#MINISTERIAL  COMMITTEE ON EMF RADIATION. http://www.dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/1.IMC%20Report_0.pdf

To reiterate, dear John, could this sort of mental attitude be an outgrowth of the postmodern pollution of thought? 

Can anybody guess the reasoning behind 4 recent down votes in this thread. I read all the responses again and could not find any reason or significance similarity! between down voted responses. Maybe we should ask dear researcher/scientist down voter to explain it to us. We cannot read minds, can we?

Back on the subject!

Dear Marwan, I have attached 4 scientific articles that may be of interest to you to you and followers

Dear Francesca,

Your post (above) has reminded me of the metaphorical and figurative words of TINA TURNER’s LYRIC (below):

WELL THE MEN COME IN THESE PLACES

AND THE MEN ARE ALL THE SAME

YOU DON`T LOOK AT THEIR FACES

AND YOU DON`T ASK THEIR NAMES

YOU DON`T THINK OF THEM AS HUMAN

YOU DON`T THINK OF THEM AT ALL

YOU KEEP YOUR MIND ON THE MONEY

I`M YOUR PRIVATE DANCER

A DANCER FOR MONEY

I`LL DO WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO

I`M YOUR PRIVATE DANCER

A DANCER FOR MONEY

AND ANY OLD MUSIC WILL DO

I WANT TO MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS

I WANT TO LIVE OUT BY THE SEA

DEUTSCHMARKS OR DOLLARS

AMERICAN EXPRESS WILL DO NICELY - THANK YOU

Thanks so much dear Behrouz. I really appreciate your concern.

Behrouz,

I think I may have the answer to the down voter.  I've also re-checked all the comments and find nothing which would warrant a down vote.  Thus, I suspect the culprit must be a young undergraduate who lives and breathes for his electronic devices.  Such people naively take personal offense at any criticism about their beloved toys.  The toys are part of who they are, their identity so they feel personally attacked.  Just try making a reasoned, rational, and correct but critical comment about Facebook or Twitter and see what response you get!  Try writing something critical about Harry Potter, the Twilight movies, the Hunger Games, etc.  That's why I, personally, wish RG could limit members to masters and doctoral candidates and advanced degree holders.  I know it seems discriminatory but sometimes you have to earn admission to the club.

Dear Francesca,

You present "the other side of the coin" and "there is an exception to every rule" and you are perceptive in doing so.  I agree that the people that we may call contrarians (negative, pessimistic, mistrusting, even antagonistic) are members of a group or community who behave as they do toward other groups, not their own.  The other side of this coin includes those who display to all, people in their group and people outside their group, honesty, integrity, respect (not just for others but for their total environment--nature and everything in it), compassion, humility, universal love, and many other positive qualities.  And these are not just limited to those with little or no education; these "good folks" come from all walks of life, of any age, of any religion, from any country.

Yes, there are more than we need in Higher Education who are vain, arrogant, self-important, and disdain those "beneath" them.  I totally agree that this characteristic or personality is appalling.

Best regards,

John

To All:

My apologies to you all.  I just realized that my comments above are off topic but I was engrossed in responding to Francesca's interesting comments and forgot about the topic.  Again, sorry.

Marwan,

Your question has been asked since the days of x-ray and Wilhelm Röntgen. Some people have coined the phrase "electromagnetic polution" but, for the most part, your question falls into two categories, electromagnic waves that can cause injury or death to humans and those that interfere with each otherm i.g., Electromagnetic Compatibility (EC)) an Jamming.

First, lets address EC. This is why you have to turn off your cell phone in a commercial aircraft. The aircraft is already jammed with communication devices for which the frequencies have been carefully selected so as to not interfere but certain public electronic devices have the potential to interfere with the aircraft electronics, especially if they are defective or malfunctioning in some way. The ItU (International Telecommunications Union) is a world wide organization that trys to coordinate all communication devices so they are electromagnetically compatible.

In the case of harm to humans, the US Federal Government through the FCC and the world thorugh the ITU, regulate manufactured devices so that the do not have the potential to harm humans. Most of what you read in the popular literature about electromagnetc damage is pure garbage or fantisy. There are exceptions of course. If you could crawl into a huge microwave oven, it would cook you. The frequency used in microwaves excites the dipole moment of water molecules and causes them to vibrate and heat up. Certain types of radar, especially the military type, can harm you if you are directly exposed to the very intense electromagnetic waves. Finally, Ultraviolet, infrared, x-ray and photonic systems can harm humans when the electromagnetic intensity is high. Hope theis helps you. Good luck.

This is very helpful and very educated. For that much, thanks so much dear Steve!

I think the issue of the impact of electromagnetic radiation on humans and living creatures is and has been controversial since the early days of wireless. I remember I read once that one man came to Markoni, the father of wireless, complaining that Marconi's -new- waves made him sick, Markoni acknowledged to the man that this might happen but he has the cure as "to expose the man to waves -apparently fake waves- that reverse these impacts!". Waves, are like any other unknowns, creates fears, which can/cannot be fully real. The true thing is that the impacts on health are not confirmed even to those who know what electromagnetic waves are. Hence, besides certain limited known impacts lots of other impacts remain speculative. Of course, electromagnetic waves comprise a wide range phenomena ranging from the ELF (extra low frequency) in the order to 10s of Hz to broadcasting and microwave frequencies in the order of KHz, MHz and few GHz, which I believe the question meant these frequencies -called the RF frequencies and Microwaves) where most recent wireless communications occur. Above that there are the higher GHz frequencies (in the order of tens or hundreds of GHz) which will utilized in near future -near field- communications as well). The higher bands of the electromagnetic spectrum include the infra-red, visible light, ultra violet, X and Gamma rays. These have many applications in therapy, military and other applications.  

Considering the known implications of the RF and Microwaves on humans, they are mainly heating implications. These depends on the frequency and power. Hence, comes the controversy, if we are considering being under the influence of high powers at these frequencies, any human tissue may be literary be cooked - That is why we have microwave ovens. But this is the same as saying that heat is dangerous (if we are inside a burner) but otherwise moderate heat is harmless or even needed to feel warmth. That is why there are warnings that mobile phones can heat up our brains but to my knowledge not yet confirmed to be that dangerous or causing cancer. Other impacts of radio frequencies can be their vibrational impacts of the body cells (which is one way to explain the heating phenomena), but again nothing is confirmed yet. It is claimed that electromagnetic waves can also interact with the biology of our bodies in many other ways in which it is all not yet confirmed or not common. In the US, one famous actress claimed that she was able to hear the broadcast of the local radio station in hear head whenever she was passing by certain street. The explanation was that the filling material in her teeth combined with the teeth itself acted to work as an AM detector (AM radio receiver) !. We didn't have after that many cases -or probably no cases- of people becoming able to receive BBC or watch CNN !. I think the science of bio-electromagnetics (the science studying the biological impacts of electromagnetic waves) will be a kind of pseudo-science (a non-perfect science) for some long time especially that the benefits of telecommunications industry to humankind is ways ahead of any hard to quantify impacts. It is a nice question anyway Dr. Obeidat. Thanks. @AlDmour.

Very helpful and fine contribution! You are most welcome, dear Ismat. Thank you.

Dear Professor Ljubomir and Jacić Dr. Ismat Aldmour,

I join Marwan M. Obeidat in thanking both of you for providing knowledge in depth on the topic.

Dear Friends,

I was very much concerned with the issue of the impact of electromagnetic radiation on human body specially brain tissues. From my limited research and study, I found that microwave generates heat as SAR. Since the power of all existing radiations are so extremely low, it is impossible to burn any tissue. We are also convinced that microwave frequency cannot break the tissue cell which may likely lead to cancer. 

@Islam, Microwave frequencies can penetrate the tissue or any material depending on its power. A microwave oven cooks by penetrating meat tissues and cooking is effected by boiling the water inside the food; i.e. cooking from inside in contrary to browning or frying which acts on outside inwards. Of course, breaking tissues is a different mechanism I  guess. Tanks. @AlDmour.

As already said or indicated,  electromagnetic waves can have at least four different kinds of biological effects. If the frequency is above visible spectrum it has ionizing effects, besides, UV and visible light can have a photochemical effect (enhancing or inhibiting certain biochemical reactions). Third – below visible spectrum it has a heating effect that is well known with IR wavelengths and also microwaves. Now all these effects are known and incorporated into the established science. What is still not universally acknowledged and completely understood are non linear non-thermal effects of relatively low frequency EM waves. Many bioelectromagnetic researches (here I would disagree with Ismat that bioelectromagnetics is a pseudoscience, which means a body of false knowledge) have proved biological effects of very low level, even sub-noise magnetic signals. Adey (Adey W. R. 1993. Biological effects of electromagnetic fields. Journal of cellular biochemistry, 51, 4: 410–416) and Markov, for instance, found even the so called frequency and power “windows”, which means that at certain frequencies and amplitudes the EM radiation can have a prominent effect, but not at proximal ones. This means that the effects are non-linear regarding the received energy impact from non-ionizing EM radiation. And something more: some, mostly rhythmical and pulsed very low frequency emissions (i.e. ELF frequency) region can have a healing or beneficent effects (and there are plenty of different electromagnetic stimulating devices on the market and even in hospitals, see for instance Markov M. S. 2007. Magnetic field therapy: a review. Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 26: 1–23), while more disordered vibrations from countless artificial environmental sources can have a harmful influence, and as already said in this thread, not on humans but also on plants and animals.