2.1.1        Disease of the Brain

The mobile phone is generating electromagnetic wave when we making a call. The electromagnetic wave can also be called electromagnetic field, microwaves and radio frequency. A lot of researchers are investigate this electromagnetic wave is it hazardous or harmless to our health. According to the information given by Dr. Chong Chon Sing, he said that the radiation of mobile phone is hazardous to our health. It usually shows the side effects after many years. From the study in internet resource, the electromagnetic wave generate by mobile phones have harmful effects at intensity levels far below the official safety threshold values. Therefore there is minor influence to our brain if we seldom making a call by using mobile phone. Those patients who had brain tumors are because of frequent usage of mobile phone for 10 years or more. Futhermore Dr. Chong said the latest developments of mobile phones are made increasingly more sensitive for receiving and transmitting signals. This is because they more concern about the mobile users able to communicate in everywhere. However there is a minus point. The sensitive is proportional to the intensity level of electromagnetic wave. It will increase risk of brain tumors.

As mentioned by Dr. Donald Chuah, from his point of view, it should be safe as at the moment there are no official research reports that prove the radiation of mobile phone is harming our health. In addition, Miss Josephine agreed the close exposure and proximity of the phone to our ear is hazardous to our health but this has not been proven in any official studies. A myriad of resources also said that there is no evidence to prove the mobile phone radiation is harmful to human being. This is because it is illegal for the researchers to choose a person as their experiment sample.

There is a research experiment taking rats as a sample. The rats influenced by the mobile phones radiation for 2 hours showed brain damage. This result showed that the electromagnetic waves of mobile phone are still highly insufficient to protect the public.

Figure 2.1.1.A shows the mobile phone radiation power distorted in human brain. Base on the research, the mobile users who had frequently used mobile phone more than 10 years were almost 40% more like to develop a certain type of brain tumour or nervous system tumour called glioma on the side of the head where they hold their mobile phone.

In figure 1 (Please refer to Appendix C for transcript), about 56% of respondents are talking less than 30 minutes on mobile phone per day. There are 22% of respondents talking about 30 minutes to 1 hour and 7% of respondents talking about 1 hour to 2 hours on mobile phone. On the other hand, there are only 15% of respondents who are making a call more than 2 hours.

In figure 16 (Please refer to Appendix C for transcript), majority of respondents 81% are agree that frequent usage of mobile phone can cause cancer. Besides, there are only 19% of respondents disagree.

From the observation on figure 1 and 16, the majority publics consciously aware of frequent using mobile phone are harmful to us. Furthermore, the publics know how to use the mobile phone in the safety ways in order to reduce the influence of the mobile phone radiation. Therefore the disease of the brain is not serious at this moment but we still have to take safety precautions.

2.1.2        Effects of the Mobile Phone Base Station

Figure 2.1.2.A shows the radio frequency energy transmits and receives between the base station and mobile phone. The base station usually placed on the rooftop of a building, tower, etc. It produces a low radio frequency (RF) energy which is just sufficient to allow mobile phone to communicate within in a limited area. A variety of research were carried out by the Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology Research (MINT) show that the radiation transmitted by base station is below than 0.001% of the exposure limit allowed by national and international authorities for general public to receive. The operation of the base stations are under controlled by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The base stations of each phone line company have to follow the rules and regulations of the Local Councils, set appropriate radio frequency energy generated by the base station, and then waiting for the Local Councils select a suitable area to setup the base station.

Furthermore, the base station also have to follow the safety guidelines developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), therefore the base station produced RF energy exposure levels are very low and it is safe to the general public.

2.1.3        Specific Absorption Rates (SAR) of Mobile Phones

A unit of radiation level is called Specific Absorption Rates (SAR). The physical unit of SAR levels is expressed in watts per kilogram of tissue (W/kg). It shows how much electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by body tissue while using a mobile phone. The higher SAR level of the mobile phone means the more radiation is absorbed.

Table 2.1.3.A shows the list of top 10 highest radiation mobile phones in the United States. Moreover table 2.1.3.B shows the list of 10 lowest radiation mobile phones in the United States. In United States, the Mobile Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) requires all mobile phones to obey with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) SAR limit of 1.6 W/kg in 1g of tissue.

In United Kingdom, all the mobile phones company has to comply with the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines for public exposure.

According to Mr. Ahmad Taiff, from his business point of view, he stated that the mobile phone companies are business entities that naturally put profit as first priority. Therefore, they will attempt to do two things. Firstly, they differentiate themselves from their competitors by incorporating the best features in mobile phone. Secondly, they will publish scientific reports that counter the radiation argument. On the other hand, most of the interviewees, they said that the mobile phone manufacturers are concern in the features of mobile phone rather than radiation level. In fact, the mobile phone manufacturers had to obey the rules and regulations and get approval from International Standard Organization (ISO) before they release their products in the market. In addition, mobile phone is harmless to general public because the mobile phone radiation level is under control by International Standard Organization (ISO).

In figure 15 (Please refer to Appendix C for transcript), there are 88% of respondents do not know about their mobile phone SAR level. Furthermore, there are only 12% of respondents know their mobile phone SAR level. We can conclude that there are still a lot of mobile users not aware of the mobile phone SAR level. This is because about 82% of them choosing the features of mobile phone as their first priority in purchasing their mobile phone as show in figure 2 (Please refer to Appendix C for transcript).

From the survey in internet resource, all the mobile phones companies are listed down every mobile phones SAR levels. Most of the mobile phone manufacturers are spending huge amount of money on research the radiation levels from mobile phones, try to make it mobile phones with limited radiation and prove that it is not much harmful to general public. On the other hand, some of the mobile phone manufacturers more concern about the features specifications of mobile phone and omit the radiations. Therefore, it is encourage the public concern the SAR levels of the mobile phone before buying the mobile phone.