The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128258   Message #2870229
Posted By: Paul Burke
23-Mar-10 - 03:30 PM
Thread Name: BS: Mobile Phone Masts. Health hazard?
Subject: RE: BS: Mobile Phone Masts. Health hazard?
Electromagnetic radiation obeys the Inverse Square Law. That is, the power of the signal decreases with the square of the distance from the transmitter.

Your mobile phone has a typical maximum output power of 2 watts, and is about three inches from your brain. A transmitting mast has an output power of less than 100W and is typically at least 50 feet away even if your house is right next to it. Do the sums: 50 feet is 200 times the distance between you and your phone. 200 squared is 40000. So the radiation you get from the mast is about 1/400th of the radiation from your phone, or 1/200th of a watt.

A similar calculation shows you get as much radiation from another person using their phone about 7 feet away from you if it is on maximum power. So if there is any detrimental effect from the radiation, it probably results from your own and other peoples' phones, not from the base transmitter.

Furthermore, to save power, the mobile phone turns down the transmission in areas with a strong signal. So against expectation and perhaps prejudice, you are likely to be safer from any possible effects if you live close to a transmitting mast.