You’re constantly on your phone and it’s usually near your body when you’re not. Should you worry about radiation exposure?
Spending all day glued to your smartphone probably isn’t doing you any favors. Excess phone use has been linked with a range of concerns, including sleep issues, elevated cortisol levels, joint pain and even relationship woes.
But if it’s radiation you’re worried about, experts say you don’t have to ditch your phone.
“There’s no risk of anything hazardous or dangerous with radiation from cellphones,” said Gayle Woloschak, an associate dean and professor of radiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
As with all cellphones (along with Wi-Fi networks, radio stations, remote controls and GPS), smartphones do emit radiation, said Emily Caffrey, an assistant professor of health physics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They use invisible energy waves to transmit voices, texts, photos and emails to nearby cell towers, which can shuttle them to virtually anywhere in the world.
But nearly three decades of scientific research has not linked such exposures to medical issues like cancer, health authorities including the Food and Drug Administration say. Here’s what we know.