Don't buy wireless e-readers

[Bricorn]

Originally Posted by CazMar

Ah - but have you noticed that life expectancy has almost doubled since the advent of all those electromagnetic devices!!
(Well, the syllogism is probably just as wobbly)

It's all the radiation from them, kills the germs.

That was meant as a joke, but now that I come to think about it.........................

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by Bricorn

It's all the radiation from them, kills the germs.

That was meant as a joke, but now that I come to think about it.........................

We could start a whole new Urban Myth here!

[Lemurion]

Biggest health risk from a Kindle is the heart attack when you get the CC statement with all those books you bought because it was just so easy.

[konrads]

Apparently, it's radio signals that 'cause the most 'radiation'. Which means that if it's actually harmful, we're all screwed anyhow - the damage's already been done and passed on a couple of times.

[jabook]

But in principle it is not. Radiation from wireless communication devices can harm people in the long term...

... but the serious effects are caused by somthing else than your e-reader. The biggest effect of microwave radiation on humans seems to be during the sleep. When you are awake, you have to be close to a source of radiation for a long time and many year to get a chance to get some bad effects. For example, if you work in an office just one or two meters from a wifi hotspot, you should be worried, but not by your ereader.

Thus, if you use your ereader to browse web for many hours a day (and constantly switching pages as streaming is not really fun on an ereader), you can be concerned...

... but the easy solution is to turn wifi off and use the readers for reading ebooks (and not to discourage from buying the majority of ereaders).

[Caltsar]

Rant:

All non-ionizing radiation is harmless except in acute excessive doses (heat from excessive microwaves, IR light, etc). There are no cumulative effects from non-ionizing radiation that are any worse then stepping out on a sunny day. In fact, exposure to reasonable levels of non-ionizing radiation is less harmful than being outside on a sunny day due to the fact that there is some ionizing UV light in sunlight.

All radio waves, visible light, cosmic rays, microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays, wireless communications, power lines, tanning lights, and just about everything around you puts out some sort of radiation. Radiation isn't harmful at reasonable levels and there's no evidence to say that non-ionizing radiation can do damage to your body in any way outside of acute, immediate effects of intense exposure (heat from IR light, induced electric currents from low frequency radiation...). Ionizing radiation on the other hand can have cumulative effects on your body due to the way it can modify your DNA. Ionizing radiation is put out by cosmic and solar rays (mostly deflected by our magnetic field), x-ray machines (that x-ray of your broken arm will do more damage to you than a lifetime of cellphone use), and your local tanning salon will bombard you with both ionizing and non-ionizing UV radiation.

If you look at a picture of the electromagnetic spectrum, you will see that all ionizing radiation is higher frequency and lower wavelengths than visible light. (UV light to "cosmic rays") All non-ionizing radiation is visible light, microwaves, radio waves, etc.

Yes, if you had a cell phone radio that operated in the microwave part of the spectrum, you could have problems due to heat generated by the microwaves, but your microwave in your house operates at many hundreds of watts. The little radio in your phone operates on milliwatts, and it isn't necessarily even close to the wavelength of a microwave used to heat food.

Radio stations have been using transmitters with far more power than your microwave since the birth of radio, and this simply causes NO problems from the radiation.

Should you be worried about excessive radiation of any kind? Yes you should, but you also have to keep in mind the intensity and distance from you. Visible light is radiation, so it's easy to think about. You have an old flashlight using an incandescent bulb. When the batteries are full, it can be hard to look directly into it, but it won't cause any long term cumulative harm. When the batteries are low, you can easily look directly at the light source until you get tired of doing so with no worry of any harm whatsoever. This is the same thing as a cell phone versus a cell phone tower. The only difference is that you can't see it. Put that same full flashlight on top of a tower, and the light will be easy to look at from a distance because the radiation dissipates.

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by jabook

The biggest effect of microwave radiation on humans seems to be during the sleep. When you are awake, you have to be close to a source of radiation for a long time and many year to get a chance to get some bad effects. For example, if you work in an office just one or two meters from a wifi hotspot, you should be worried, but not by your ereader.

Umm so I should be worried that my microwave is going to come get me in the night while I sleep?

All kidding aside, how exactly is radiation more dangerous while we are sleeping? I truly want to know, not trying to joke here.

[FF2]

Mortis

You probably sleep next to a clock radio and surrounded by wires in the walls that you do not move away from while sleeping, would be my guess.

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by Caltsar

This reminds me of the wireless company that built a new cell phone tower and suddenly a large number of people attributed sickness, headaches, and other symptoms to the radio signals being put out.

Except the tower hadn't been turned on that entire time.

I think I remember reading that somewhere. Absolutely hilarious!!!

Originally Posted by Mortis

Umm so I should be worried that my microwave is going to come get me in the night while I sleep?

My thoughts exactly.

[jabook]

The electromagnetic fields influence production of some hormones such as melatonin (which normally reacts to light and plays a role in our resting while sleeping) and the body cannot take the rest and refresh as good as it should.

The note about clock radio (plugged into the eletricity net) next to your bed is actually a good point - it too has its negative (albeit small) effects. There are large epidemiological studies done years ago in UK and elsewhere just on this topics (effect of electric appliances close to your bed).

[jabook]

> Umm so I should be worried that my microwave is going to come get me in the night
> while I sleep?
> My thoughts exactly.

If you have one looking like the fridge from the Heineken ads, then definitely :-)))

[Mortis]

Umm ever been in a hospital, lots of electronic equipment, MRI's, X-Rays, CAT Scan machines (I have no idea what they are called) etc. So all doctors, nurses, orderlies and staff will all be at risk? How about guys that work in power plants or around large equipment powered by electric motors and what about the people that so foolishly bought electric/hybrid cars, think of all the actors that will be flogging their Prius? What is the plural for Prius?

[Caltsar]

Originally Posted by jabook

The electromagnetic fields influence production of some hormones such as melatonin (which normally reacts to light and plays a role in our resting while sleeping) and the body cannot take the rest and refresh as good as it should.

The note about clock radio (plugged into the eletricity net) next to your bed is actually a good point - it too has its negative (albeit small) effects. There are large epidemiological studies done years ago in UK and elsewhere just on this topics (effect of electric appliances close to your bed).

The issue with the conclusion you're drawing is that studies on electromagnetic fields and the production of melatonin don't draw any definitive conclusions on what harmful effects this can have on humans. Certainly when exposing lab rats to incredibly high fields this has an adverse effect, but this doesn't mean the effect is enough to cause us harm in our daily life due to fields given off by the wiring in our walls (which are absolutely TINY by the way).

Melatonin is also influenced by visible light FAR more than by electromagnetic radiation, so leaving your computer monitor on, a nightlight on, or any sort of light source will effect your melatonin levels much more significantly than the minute magnetic fields given off by your home's wiring. Even before we lived in modern homes, the cycle of the full moon to new moon would effect this more than any electromagnetic field we are exposed to on a daily basis. (which, by the way, electromagnetic fields are NOT radiation, but you can create radiation through electromagnetic fields... confusing right?)

Common electromagnetic fields and radiation simply have so small of an effect on our production of melatonin that scientist cannot definitely account for positive or negative effects on our daily lived due to the results being below the threshold of the "noise" in the data produced due to minor fluctuations in sleeping schedule, light levels, and so many other factors.

When searching and finding information about these sorts of topics, an academic search engine such as Google Scholar will give you good, verified sources of information. Much of the misinformation about radiation comes from these studies though, so keep in mind the levels of radiation being used compared to the levels you are being exposed to.

Also remember that while IR radiation can burn you at high enough levels (one type of radiation that's easy to give a concrete example for), at low levels you will simply NEVER get burned if the level of IR radiation doesn't pass a certain threshold. Exactly like putting your finger in water around your body temperature versus putting your finger in boiling water.

[MikeRo]

Originally Posted by corona

Sadly, no.

That study is extremely flawed. There was zero investigation on the effects of constructing the hats using foil with the shiny side in versus shiny side out.

[snipenekkid]

don't forget to wear your lead lined jock strap as well. Ok, at least the guys need to remember that when carrying your phone in your front pants pocket!!

Gots to protect the fella's!!