More than two billion people use mobile phones today. In many places, it is more common to use a mobile phone, or cell phone, than a landline. Mobile phones are especially popular with young people. They find that the phones are more than a means of communication-having a mobile phone shows that they are cool2 and connected.
The explosion³ in mobile phone use around the world has some health professionals worried. Some doctors are concerned that in the future, people may suffer health problems4 from using mobile phones. Even now, there are people who claim that their mobile phones are making them sick. In one case, a young salesman had to stop working because of serious memory loss. He couldn’t remember even simple things. He would often forget the name of his own child. The man used to talk on his mobile phone for six hours a day, every day of his working week, for a couple of years. His family doctor blamed his mobile phone use, but his employer’s doctor disagreed. Of course mobile phone companies are worried about the negative publicity of such stories. They say that there is no proof that mobile phones are bad for your health.
While there still isn’t any proof that mobile phones are bad for your health, neither is there any proof that mobile phones aren’t bad for your health. Research has shown that using mobile phones affects brain activity, but it isn’t clear why or what effect it might have over the long term.
What is it that makes mobile phones potentially harmful? The answer is radiation. Radiation happens when one object sends heat or energy to another object. Heat radiation from the sun, for example, is heat sent from the sun to the earth. High-tech7 machines can detect very small amounts of radiation from mobile phones. The amount of radiation from mobile phones falls between the lower amount that radio waves produce and the higher amount that microwaves make. It’s a fact that some radiation comes from mobile phones. While mobile phone companies agree with this fact, they say the amount is too small to worry about. Some scientists, however, disagree. They say we still don’t know if small amounts of radiation over a long period of time can cause health problems.
As the debate about the safety of mobile phones continues, you might want to take some advice from scientists. Use your mobile phone only when you really need to. Keep your telephone calls short. Turn your phone off when you aren’t using it. When you do use it for long calls, try using earbudss instead of holding the phone to your ear. In the future, mobile phones may have a warning label that says they are bad for your health. So for now, be careful.
1 hang up turn the telephone off
2 cool doing things that are popular
3 explosion sudden increase
4 suffer health problems (from) have health problems caused by
5 there is no proof (that) there are no facts to show that; there is no evidence that
6 over the long term over many years
7 high-tech advanced technology
8 earbuds small earphones