Cell Phone

In today’s world, cell phones are part of a life. As the technology improves more and more people are buying cell phones. Many new cell phones are like a small computer, as they have a picture and video camera, web browsing, music player, internal storage, and many other features. “Statistics show that 79% of the U. S. population and 90% of European and Asian teens own a cell phone” (O’Keefe, 2008, p. 671). In some countries around the world such as Israel, Hong Kong, Italy, and the Czech Republic, there are more cell phones than people (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. ). In 1993, a man named David Raynard from Florida appeared on the Larry King Live and accused a cell phone industry that his wife died because of cancer that was caused by a cell the use. From that time cell phone radiation has been one of main concerns to people (Park, 2001, p. 166), but since then several studies have proved that cell phones do not cause any health problems. There are two types of radiations, ionizing and non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation consists of Gamma rays, X-Rays and ultraviolet radiation.

Ionizing radiation has enough energy to damage the nucleus of atoms causing damage to DNA which could lead to changes in chemical reactions in the body (How Cell-phone Radiation Works, 2001). Cell phones function at 900 or 1800 MHz frequencies. These frequencies fall within the same part of the radiation spectrum as the radios and televisions which are referred to Radio Frequency Radiation. Radio Frequency Radiation falls in the range of non-ionizing radiation (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 6). Non-ionizing radiation consists of radio, television, cell phones, microwave, and visible light (“How Cell-phone Radiation Works”, 2001).

Non- ionizing radiation has enough energy to change the energy levels of the electron, but doesn’t have enough energy to destroy or move any part of an atom. This causes increase in heat level of the area that could be close to source of radiation. This states that RFR from cell phone does not harm the human tissue from heat. Besides the heating of the tissues, there are some other theories that say “extremely low frequency magnetic fields” might affect the production of some antioxidants and/or stop the production of the chemicals that stop cellular mutation.

There is also another theory that says low frequency electromagnetic fields change the structure of DNA, but these are just theories for now (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 6). For the electronic devices not to cause harm, the law requires safety standards to limit and periodically update the maximum amount of exposure to Radio Frequency Radiation. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued standards for general public and working people. Working people refers to those people who are working in an area where they are exposed to Radio Frequency Radiation.

Exposure limit for working people is higher than the general public, because working people are aware that they are being exposed to the radiation unlike the general public that is not aware of the exposure and cannot avoid or decrease the exposure (Barnes, 1999, p. 21). The limit for exposure for working people is 0. 4W/kg and for the public is 0. 08W/kg. Effects of Radio Frequency Radiation from cell phone and cell phone stations are investigated by the World Health Organization (WHO). “According to WHO, exposure to [Radio Frequency Radiation] from base stations is actually only 0. 002% to 2% of the levels of international exposure guidelines, lower or comparable to exposure from radio or television. ” (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 7). WHO is also helping the researchers to fully understand Radio Frequency Radiation exposure. There have many researches that have been done trying to look for a link between cancer and cell phone radiation. Some studies have been done by collecting data from records and looking for any links between cell phone and cancer. While other actually test at affect of cell phone on living beings.

These researches test to see how much radiation was absorbed and even after that if increases the chances of having health problems One of biggest researches included a study that was done in Denmark. IT included a list of cell phone users that subscribed from January 1982 until December 1995. The list was obtained from the two cell phone companies that provided service to the user in the Denmark. The list also contained contact information of the cell phone users, and what kinds of cell phones they were using at that time.

Many of the users had to be excluded because there was not enough information to support the research. The final list had about (420,000 users) 80. 3 percent of users that were on the first list obtained from the cell phone companies. The median age for cell phone users was 37. 4 years and 38. 4 years for female cell phone users. Another list was obtained from Danish Cancer Registry that was used to determine the number of cancers from January 1982 to December 1995. The cancer list contained many different types of cancers including brain tumours and urinary tract papilloma that occurred to cell phone users.

That list also separated sex and five year groupings. Most of the cell phone users subscribed to the service during the years 1994 and 1995. Using the statistics from the cancer report, expected numbers of cancers were predicted. The results from the study showed that the usage of cell phone did not increase the number of cancers to be found in male cell phone users. For female cell phone users the results were similar as males and did not show any increase in number of cancers.

The number of people with brain cancer actually decreased even when the number of cell phone users increased dramatically; however there was increase in a few types of cancer, but the increase showed no relationship between the cell phone and cancer. The study also showed decrease in lung cancer after 1992 because of the decrease in prices of cell phones in Denmark. The usage of cell phones showed decrease in lung cancer because users were more likely to use a cell phone than some cigarettes. Many young people were spending more money on cell phone rather than buying cigarettes.

In conclusion of this study, the results show no increase in any type of cancer that was related to cell phone use. (Johansen, Boice, McLaughlin, & Olsen, 2001, p. 203-207). Another research was done in India to determine the neurological effect of electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phone, when cell phone is kept at different positions close to the body, by analysis of heart rate variability (sample entropy and scaling exponent). The study included fourteen male aged between 24 and 46. Electrocardiogram was used for 30 minutes on each volunteer to obtain recordings with three different situations.

The heart rate of the volunteers was also recorded during all three situations. First situation was to get normal recordings without a call phone. Second situation was to have the cell phone in the left pocket so that it is closer to the heart. In the third situation, the cell phone was placed near the left ear. A thirty-minute break was given between each recording. Dame cell phone was used for the recordings. The results determined sample entropy and scaling exponent indicated an increase when cell phone was placed near the chest and a decrease when cell phone is placed near the head.

However, the differences were not that high enough when compared to recordings from without using a cell phone simple because cell phones emit very low power to cause any significant change to heart rate that can be detected. (Ahamed, Karthick, & Hoseph, 2008, p. 709-711). There have been several studies that found that cell phone radiation increases the risk of cancer, but later when some of those studies were studied again, it was stated that cell phone radiation does not increase the risk of cancer.

A study in Australia in 1996 found that FM and TV towers increased the rates of leukemia in children, but in a later study it was determined that towers showed no increase of risk from the exposure. Two different studies were done in Sweden and found the increase in number brain tumours from cell phone radiation, but when the one of these studies was repeated, it found no increase in brain tumours. Once again when the same study was done later on, it found increase of risk developing tumour. After International Agency of Research in Cancer sponsored the research and no evidence was found that cause increase the risk of tumours. Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 8). The studies about cell phone radiation have many limitations that prevent them from completely accurate answers. Several factors contribute to this such as there are not that many researches that researched for more than ten years, documents that show amount of cell phone usage are possibly to be bias, amount of Radio Frequency Radiation depends on type of cell phone and the location of the cell phone, and also it is almost impossible to test Radio Frequency Radiation exposure in an isolated area because there are always other objects emitting Radio Frequency Radiation.

These types of limitations produce different answers sometimes to a study when it is repeated. It is possible for some researchers to bias to state their point. (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 7). In conclusion, there been many researches trying to find the answer to cell phone radiation and its possible effects. Some state that there is an increase in risk of cancer and other health problems, however some researches state that there no increase in risk of cancer and other health problems. (Kohli, Sachdev, & Vats, 2009, p. 7).

To have improved future researches, the studies should be longer, ongoing for at least ten to fifteen years. There should be a study that is done throughout different countries in the world in both rural and urban areas. In my opinion, cell phone radiation does not increase the risk of any disease. If that was not the case then anybody who uses a cell phone would already have brain tumour and there would been a dramatic decrease in population. For at least now I think there are enough studies that support the no increase in risk developing health problems and everyone should believe those studies.

Are cell Phones a Health Hazard? With the increasing of mobile phones’ functions, people rely more and more on them. The lower price also enables the mobile phone to become people’s daily necessity. Now even many students have their own mobile phone. People began to worry about the cell phone which will do harm to our health. But why people become worried about that? There are some speculates that cell phone might potentially threaten human being’s health. Mobile phones can emit radiofrequency energy (radio waves), which is constituted by non-ionizing radiation.

Things closest to will absorb this energy. According to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, as of 2010, there were more than 303 million subscribers to mobile phone service in the United States, which is nearly three times than the 110 million users in 2000. Globally, the number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated to be 5 billion by the International Telecommunications Union. The number of mobile subscriptions has already increased quickly. (Cell Phones and Cancer Risk, 2012)

The chart below (Chart 1) shows the number of mobile Internet users, including the prediction of the number in 2013. Over time, the amount of time of each phone call, as well as the number of people using the mobile phone has increased. Mobile phone technology has also had a very big change. Chart 1 Chart1: US moblie Internet users & penertration, 2008-2013 (millions and % mobile phone subscriers) To my way of thinking, cell phones will really have a health hazard. RF is a potential threat to human body.

Radiofrequency energy (RF) is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation can be defined into two types: ionizing (e. g. , x-rays, radon, and cosmic rays) and non-ionizing (e. g. , radiofrequency and extremely low-frequency or power frequency). (Cell Phones and Cancer Risk, 2012) As we know, all of the creatures and plants, including humans, are exposed to ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation during the whole period of evolution. So recently the society began to worry about the potential harm of RF from cell phones which may cause brain cancer.

A series of studies began to look at the relationship between cell phone usage and brain tumors. If cell phone will bring a negative effect was a controversial topic, and the opinions on this topic are extremely different. Some people hold that cell phones are nothing to do with the health problems, since the non-ionizing radiation from cell phones is typically safe to the human body. A low level of radiofrequency energy is a kind of non-ionizing radiation, and it is different from high levels of radiofrequency energy that produces negative health effects by heating tissue.

(Radiation-Emitting Products, 2012) Therefore, it can say people exposed to low level RF which does not heat tissues in human body are not necessary to worry about with cell phones. Although low level RF is safe doesn’t mean that the potential damages do not exist. Firstly, our brain is able to absorb the electromagnetic radiation at radio frequencies that emitted by mobile phones, so if we use mobile phones for a long time, which will increase the hazard of brain cancer to a great extent. So this is a long-term effect. Secondly, cell phones are becoming more advanced, and the inner structure of cell phones has had a great change.

Cell phones have come to our daily life with more functions, which may have unknown effects. A recent study showed that when people used a cell phone for 50 minutes, brain tissues on the same side of the head metabolized more glucose than that on the opposite side of the brain. (Cell Phones and Cancer Risk, 2012) It means that using cell phones can change some tissues of human body, although the outcomes have not been deemed good or not. Another negative effect is that talking through cell phones when driving will increase the risk of traffic accidents.

There were nearly 80 million people who own cell phones, and surveys indicated that 85 percent of these owners use phones while driving. (Williams & Analyst, 2002) According to the journal’s publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, there are 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year because of mobile phone distraction. (Britt, 2005) Drivers talking on cell phones will have their attention distracted. As a matter of fact that only 80% of their attention can be paid when they are talking to somebody. And speaking requires more attention than listening.

In a conversation, if a driver is more eager to talk to others than to listen, the greater the distraction he has. It is said that drivers use cell phones when they are driving just look but don’t see. There were two different experiments associated with professor of psychology Dr. Amit Almor. (Science Daily, 2008) One experiment needed the participants to test the visual shape on a monitor, and the second experiment required participants to do a visual task while listening to a story that had been prerecorded and then the participants were required to tell their feeling about this story.

In the end, the attention level of these participants had been measured. People found that they were four times more distracted when people were speaking than when they were listening. It came to a conclusion that speaking demands more brain’s resources than listening. People are used to communicating face-to- face, so if they were talking while driving, they will imagine the conversation in their brain, and they have to try to remember what they have been talking and how to respond in a right position. Hearing loss is also a big health hazard.

People who use cell phones for more than one year acquire hearing loss problems, according to research presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation’s Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in Washington, DC. Otherwise, the study found that people who used mobile phones more than one hour a day were more likely to suffer from hearing problems. (Robert, 2007) Obviously, long-term use of cell phones will have a great impact on hearing, which is mostly a negative impact. Using cell phones too long may damage our inner ear and bring about a high frequency hearing loss.

High frequency hearing loss means that people may feel difficult to hear consonants such as s, f, t, and z, but they can hear vowels generally. Therefore, although people can hear muffled sounds, they unable to figure out what people exactly say. Not just talking too much through cell phones may cause hearing loss, but listening to high decibel music is also producing a big damage to hearing. People now would like listening music with their phones wherever they go, such as in the train, because it is very noisy when taking a train, so people always prefer listening to high decibel music that they can enjoy the clearer music.

If some symptoms such as ear ringing, ear warmth, and the ear fullness have arose, which are warning signs that your hearing is in danger. What are the reasons these symptoms have occurred. The possible cause is the electric-magnetic-frequencies, which emit a magnetic field greater than 3 milli-gauss from many cell phones.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that electric-magnetic-frequencies greater than 3 milli-gauss may do harm to human health. (Robert, 2007) Naresh K. Panda, MS, DNB, chairman of the department of ear, nose, and throat at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, and researcher for a study. He and his colleagues performed experiment. They texted 100 people, at the age of 18 to 45, who had used cell phones for at least one year, and according to length of use, they divided this people into 3 groups. One group had 35 people, who had used cell phones for one to two years, and another group of 35 had used cell phones for two to four years, and the final 30 people had used them for more than four years.

Those who used the mobile phones for more than four years suffered a greater degree of hearing loss in their right ear, the ear often listens through the phone, than those who used the mobile phone for one to two years. (Doheny, 2007) As well, using cell phones too long will hurt our eyesight. Numbers of people use cell phones every day. We can do many things on our cell phones: sending text messages, reading emails, surfing the web, and even finding the driving directions. It’s so amazing that we can do all of this work just in a device which can be held in one hand.

However, lots of problems are coming with this convenience. Reading such the really small text on the phones will cause problems. Not only for the tiny letters in such a small screen, but also people have become accustomed to holding the phone closer to their face than they need to. Reading from your phone forces your eyes to focus in a way which is much different than before when people usually read from paper. It is also harmful with your eyes’ vergence, which is the simultaneous movement of both eyes in opposite directions to obtain or maintain single binocular vision.

Although your eyes are designed to adapt to the circumstances more easily, many people have become accustomed to reading from their cell phones all day long. In the long term, not only can this habit lead to headaches, but also eyestrain, dry eyes, and blurred vision. According to Dr. Jeffrey Hankin, an optometrist, people are pulling their smart phone four inches closer than normal reading distance could cause problems. (NBC25 News, 2011) This is always accompanied by a headache while people just feel tired and maybe have a little difficulty on focusing.

Sometimes the blink rate will slow down and the eyes are dry. These symptoms cannot be ignored. It is saying that your eyesight is becoming weaker. How cell phones damage our eyesight? We are in the environment full of radiation and electrical signals , at the same time, human body was being attacked by hundreds of signals every second. It is affecting all our body parts, but we have not aware of it yet. “The wavelength of wireless signals (which is about 2 to 2. 5 cm) used for mobile phones and other wireless terminals matches with that received by the human eye.

The dielectric constant (absorption capacity) of eye tissues is around 70 which is greater than unity (above 50). This means that the eye can absorb electromagnetic energy very quickly,” explains Dwivedi. (Cell phones can damage eyes, 2010) So it comes out a conclusion that the problem is not the energy absorbs by the eye, but the heat from the energy absorbed by the eye cannot get transmitted out of the body. Moreover, cell phones have a strong relationship with human mental health. People always take cell phone with them all the time, no matter where they go.

They play games, listen to music, watch videos, and chat with friends. It seems like that we can’t live without cell phones, especially children. More and more children at 12 and 13 ages have their own cell phones. Those children who are addicted to cell phones spend most of time on their phones, like talking, texting or playing games. Their parents are beginning to be concerned that the children are unable to do some normal activities without their phones. They often skip classes and lie to relatives to get more money to buy phone cards.

It these situations, cell phones are just like the drugs which make the children gradually lose themselves. What’s more, lots of students even play cell phones during class. While teachers are speaking in front of students, students are texting or playing games in their seat even without any covers. The other mental problem is that cell phone is tending to cause depression and sleep problems in young people now. Young people who use cell phones heavily also complain more about sleeping problems, pressures and other mental health problems, according to researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

(Pedersen, 2012) Researchers made a questionnaire survey towards 4,100 young adults at the ages of 20 to24 and interviewed 32 heavy users of information and communication technology. The findings interpret that the use of mobile phone has a close relationship with pressure, depressive symptoms and sleeping disorders. The researchers could not be sure of the origin causes, but what we can speculate is that people with depression or sleep problems perhaps get access to cell phones more than others. Here is more other evidence. The University of Tokyo’s researchers investigated nearly 18,000 young people in in high school in Japan.

In order to estimate their depression, anxiety and even thoughts about suicide, the participants were required to answer some specific questions. Participants also reported how often they spoke on their cellphones or sent emails after going to bed and how many hours they slept at night. The findings tell us that children in different countries with different cultures have similar problems are related to similar reasons. As a whole, cell phones are closely integrated cell phones into our lives, yet they have health hazard for our daily lives. We should use them in a proper way.

Secondly I shall be investigating BT Cellnet. They are a Public Limited Company (Plc. ). They operate in the tertiary sector. They were launched in January 1985 and in the first year 25,000 customers joined the Cellnet network. In 1988 Cellnet connected 100,000 people in a year for the first time. In 1992 Cellnet launched the UK market’s first consumer tariff package. In 1994 Cellnet reached the landmark of 1 million customers and in 1995 those million people were able to use the highly popular Short Message Service (SMS Texting).

In February 1998 BT Cellnet users could use the 1471 service not only on their house phones but now on their mobiles as well. 1998 was a good year for Cellnet as they were the first mobile network service to cover over 99% of the UK population. 1999 was also a good year for Cellnet as they changed their name to BT Cellnet and they were now broadcast in over 100 countries (101 to be precise). Industry and leading services mean over 11 million people are now using BT to stay in touch. Their i?? 2b network handles over 30 million calls a day and covers over 99% of the UK population.

BT is forging the way ahead for the 3rd generation services. They were the first to bring back the Mobile Internet to their customers and their recent GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) data transfer call over a live GSM network was a world first. BT Cellnet has many sponsors which include the Scottish Rugby Union team, the England Rugby Union team, 95. 8 Capital Fm and Middlesborough Football Club whose Stadium is called The Cellnet Riverside Stadium. BT has many competitors, which include Orange, Virgin, One2one and Vodaphone.

What is a Plc? The main difference between a public and private limited company is that public limited companies have nearly unlimited restriction on the number of shareholders or on the freedom to sell and buy shares depending on how much the company is worth. Shares in a public limited company can be bought and sold on the stock market at any time by individual members of the public, other companies or organisations. Public limited companies have ‘plc’ (meaning public limited company) after their name as for example ICI plc.

The government actually owns shares in some major public limited companies, such as BP, but since private individuals and organisations own the majority of shares in these companies, the companies themselves remain in the private sector. Advantages BT Cellnet can grow as much as it wants but as over 99% of the Uks population do they really want to grow any bigger? As BT gets bigger there is more money coming into the company and more money means that more people can be employed and there will not be a skill shortage.

BT has limited liability, as it is a Plc. If the shares in BT go up in value then if people buy into the company and the company can get more money. Disadvantages Any Plc is at risk of a takeover because if a shareholder buys over 50% of the company then he has the say in the company and he is in charge. The share can increase in value and it can also decrease in value and if people buy shares at a low price and wait till the shares go up in value and then sell them then BT are losing money.

With a Plc there are more people involved so it takes more time to make a decision over something than it would with an Ltd. If you are in a Plc then you can lose control easiliey and you will need to hire accountants and everybody in the company has to obey the L. S. E rules and regulations. All of the accounts in a Plc are public so if you do have an account in a Plc then your acounts will be public. Trends in Telecommunications Telecommunications is a growth area. Mobile phone ownership is currently 16. 8 million. Ownership is said to be peaking.

The main players are Orange, Vodaphone, BT Cellnet, Airtouch, Virgin and One2One. A new innovation is pre-pay phones – though these are supposed to be more expensive in the long run. Business Activities Bt Cellnet’s main business activity is to provide a tariff to the public. They provide different tariffs for example they could sell a tariff where you get cheap call in the morning and more expensive calls at night or the could sell you a tariff where you get cheap calls at night but more expensive calls in the morning depending on how you use your phone.

Influences On Business Bt Cellnett are situated all over the world so they do not have an exact location but the main store is in London. This is because all imports can be easily accessed because Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Most business people use BT Cellnett as it is the cheapest Phone Company and most landlines are BT so it is cheaper to call other business people or to call family at home or at work.