Phone masts

[izzieamy]

How do the waves off a phone mast effect someones health ?

thank you

x

[chakka35]

There is no evidence that they do.

[fo3nix]

It's all about whether or not the radiation is ionising. What does this mean?

Imagine you have an atom. It has a nuclear, with electrons spinning round it (a very crude model, but it'll suffice). An ion is one that has lost or gained an electron (or a few).

Electromagnetic radiation, which means light, microwaves, radiowaves, X-rays, gamma rays, etc., is made up of little particles called photons. The electrons in atoms are being held to the atom with some force. If the photons of the radiation hit the atom with more force than the electrons are being held onto by, then the photons can knock the electrons out of the atom, ionising them. This is called ionising radiation.

Note that it's the energy that each individual photon has that gives it its ability to ionise atoms, and not the number of photons (called intensity).

Now, if the atoms of your skin for example are ionised, then, if enough of them are in a small region, it could cause damage to the cell that these atoms make up. If a damage cell is in your body, your body will try and remove it. But sometimes (and I'm not sure it's 100% understood, but I'm a physicist and not a biologist), enough bad cells group together to become cancerous cells.

Clearly, this can damage your health.

[fo3nix]

There are other issues too though.

For example, microwaves work in part by energising water molecules in food to excite them, thus heating and cooking them.

The same thing may occur with mobile phones, since they're using similar microwave frequencies, and your brain is composed of water to a certain percentage.

But really, it's hotly disputed (pun not intended), so I wouldn't be too concerned. Long-term effects aren't known.

Also remember that electromagnetic radiation energy follows an inverse square law; this means that things very close to your may matter, but things far from your lose so much energy that they probably don't.

[chakka35]

Yes, fo3nix, but why do you go into all that detail when there is nothing to expIain?
First you must demonstrate that there is a problem before you try to explain it. As a physicist you should know that.

[Teddio]

Electromagnetic radiation does not have to be ionising to be dangerous. Radio, microwave, visible and infrared can all be lethal if their intensity is high enough. Mobile phone masts give out low intensity microwaves and there's no strong evidence to suggest any health risks.