Google Glass ushers in a new trend in wireless devices. A wearable computer with head mounted display, Google Glass captures a lot of attention with its design, functions and life-style implication. Though it is not yet on sale, some people have raised concerns that Google Glass introduces new types of radiation exposure risks due to the way in which it is worn. This article explores the implications of on-body wireless devices on radiation exposure. Like all wireless devices, Google Glass emits electromagnetic radiation, called non-ionizing radiation, in the radio-frequency (RF) range in operation. The prototype Google Glass has Wi-Fi and...

According to a May 2013 news release in The Economic Times, India may ban import of mobile phones that don't display their radiation emission levels in September 2013. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will shortly issue a notification calling for mandatory disclosure of specific absorption rate (SAR) as a pre-condition for future handset imports. In September 2012, Indian government issued a new mobile radiation law that lowered the exposure limit of mobile handsets from a SAR of 2.0 W/kg to 1.6 W/kg and made it mandatory for wireless device manufacturers to display the SAR values on their handsets....

On Jan. 21, 1993, the television talk-show Larry King featured a Florida man named David Reynard, who had filed a tort claim against the cell phone manufacturer NEC and the carrier GTE Mobilnet, claiming that radiation from their cell phones caused or accelerated the growth of a brain tumor in his wife Susan Elen Reynard. “The tumor was exactly in the pattern of the antenna,” Reynard told King. Susan was diagnosed with a malignant brain cancer called astrocytoma at age 31 in 1989 and died from it in 1992. David believed that high dose of radiation from Susan's cell phone...

At alara formally known as Pong, we've been followin the recent scientific news with great interest. Israeli scientists have reported preliminary findings of a possible link between cell phone radiation and thyroid cancer. Does Cell Phone Radiation Cause Thyroid Cancer?   Conducted at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva and at Tel Aviv University, the Israeli research showed evidence for the first time of the possible connection between the rise in thyroid cancer cases to the increased exposure to radiation emitted by cell phones. In the experiment, human thyroid cells collected from healthy patients were subjected to radiation from a device...

In June 2012, The Federal Communications Commission announced that it was going to take a closer look at its standards for cell phone safety to see if the agency needed to revise its 15-year-old guidelines. By November, alara formally known as Pong filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the agency to “seek information on ways that the device testing guidelines can be improved to more accurately reflect predominant consumer behavior.” Recently, the FCC announced that it was seeking comment from other agencies and health experts as to whether it should update the standards that limit exposure to...

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular in modern lives. Most teens -- 85% of those aged 14 to 17 -- have cell phones. So do 69% of 11-14 year olds and 31% of kids aged 8-10, according to a 2010 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The average age at which kids get their first phones has declined steadily during the past decade. For parents, it becomes an important, and sometimes difficult decision to make when to give their kids a mobile phone. While there are many factors to consider when making the decision, this article focuses on the health...