I don’t carry a cell phone in my pants pocket any more, unless it’s in airplane mode or turned off. Several months ago I read and agreed with Tim Ferriss in The Four Hour Body that you probably don’t want a radiation emitter cuddling with your testicles. He apparently tripled his motile sperm per ejaculate during an eleven-week program of no phone-testicle cuddling, cold treatments, and eating Brazil nuts. So I carry my cell phone in my breast pocket if I have one and in my hand if I don’t.
The problem is, I also care about my heart, lungs, muscle, bone, and lymph nodes which my cell phone is now cuddling with. And I don’t care for the phone-strapped-to-arm look. I often just keep it turned off or in airplane mode, which is fine. I don’t mind not being on call to everyone who has my phone number.
But now I am actually and professionally on call. My work has a two-week rotation for therapists to be on call 24 hours a day for crisis intervention and I’m on until next Monday. My work cell has to be on and it has to be on my person or I will likely miss a call. So now I’m carrying two phones.
Oh, what to do?
Nathen's Miraculous Escape 
January 8, 2014 at 9:40 pm
That’s quite the regimen to try to discern an effect from.
It’s quite a tiny bit of energy being emitted by these things — and at the bands involved, we’re talking heating of far, far less than one degree fahrenheit. Adjusting one’s underwear by a quarter inch is more likely to have an effect. Or taking a few deep breaths.
January 8, 2014 at 10:00 pm
How far away from your body does it need to be? Inches? Feet? Is there any material that reduces the amount of radiation that leaks out? If so, I bet Reanna could make you some very attractive phone-bags.
January 8, 2014 at 10:36 pm
Phones emit radio-frequency radiation, that is to say light which has a wavelength in the range of centimeters to kilometers. Light at this frequency lacks the energy to cause chemical damage to cells and, if absorbed, as far as I know simply heats tissue (Forgive me if you know this already.)
I haven’t done an extensive amount of research on the matter, but from what I do know about the medical studies regarding non-ionizing radiation, it’s generally not known to cause any health problems. There’s a lot of controversy on the matter and some conflicting studies but I haven’t yet found information that would suggest low-energy light (anything below ultraviolet) is dangerous to your health, with the exception of the optic nerve.
It’s certainly possible that there’s some effect not well documented or understood, but from the brief reading I have done it doesn’t look like it, at least not so far.
January 8, 2014 at 10:49 pm
guinea pigs
us :-)
January 9, 2014 at 6:52 am
Glad you’re thinking about this stuff. We’ll know more in the future, I’m sure. Until then, be cautious: leave it on your desk, your passenger seat, carry in your hand… push it in a baby stroller? Ha!
January 9, 2014 at 9:04 am
I carry mine in the low hip pocket of carpenter’s pants, wich, since I almost exclusively wear carhartts are usually available. If not, in a jacket pocket, or more likely a messenger bag. I usually leave it somewhere if I’m semi stationary, at home or at work. As an avid cyclist I figure I’m bound for skin or prostate cancer before I really have to worry about the phone though….
January 10, 2014 at 11:27 am
The research is still not conclusive on how dangerous cell phone radiation actually is. WHO is calling it a possible carcinogen with the main possible danger (so far) being head and neck cancer http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs193/en/. Basically there isn’t a long enough time frame to determine if the early studies that showed increased glioma are applicable to newer phones and larger populations. Cell phone use is changing faster than the studies that track it. The original studies had the highest use (highest 10%) at 1/2 hour a day. I bet most people used their phones at least that much 5 years ago, texting and smart phones have changed how people interact with phones since then.
So if you want to be conservative the why not use a bag or belt clip to carry the phone and use a microphone and ear piece? Anything that keeps the phone farther from your body should help (inverse square law). Also making sure the phone isn’t worn on the exact same area all the time should reduce risks in case the speculation in by this paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24151509 represents reality.