Radio Waves From Cell Phone Can Damage Brain Cells: Expert

Bhubaneswar: Radio waves from a cell phone can affect the metabolism of the brain. The more powerful the cell phone, greater is the danger, eminent Neurosurgeon Prof Ashok Mohapatra has said.

“We are getting damaged every day as the radio frequency in public places is much more today,” Mohapatra, Director (Health Programmes) of SOA Deemed to be University, said while addressing a meeting in the university on Wednesday.

He pointed out that people even use three cell phones simultaneously and put them under their pillow when they go to sleep. “It can have harmful effects because of the vibration,” he said, while speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of a four-day National Master Class organised by the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Institute of Dental Sciences (IDS), Faculty of Dental Sciences of SOA, in collaboration with the Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons of India (AOMSI).

The former head of department of Neuro Surgery at AIIMS, New Delhi, Mohapatra said continuous exposure to such radio waves can lead to loss of memory and other disorders like insomnia and irritation. Besides, cell phone towers should not be set up on housetops and in localities inhabited by people as they emit high-frequency radio waves.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) had stipulated in 2005 that there should be no school, college, hospital, market or habitation within 50 metres of a cell phone tower, but we don’t have any guidelines in our country as yet,” he said adding such guidelines exist in the US and China.

Addressing the dental students, he said while there were only two dental surgeons in Odisha in 1970, there were more than 2000 today.

Among others, Prof Neeta Mohanty, Dean of IDS, Prof Sangram Patra, Dean of High Tech Dental College and Dr Sovan Mishra, head of department of Oral Surgery at IDS spoke on the occasion.

Around 70 participants from across the country are attending the programme.