Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Helmut on June 9, 2010 at 5:11pm

The DexCom 7+ manual states:

Maximum Output Power: 25 uW EIRP
Transmit Duty Cycle: 9.28 ms every 5 minutes

This means that a DexCom 7+ user is exposed to 2.6 seconds of radiation from the transmitter per day.

The typical RF output of a cell phone is 100 mW.
The DexCom 7+ radiation is 4000 times weaker than that of a typical cell phone.

Permalink Reply by Ursela on June 10, 2010 at 9:44am

Does this person also refuse to fly, hike in a mountain, go inside a brick structure? Does she have granite countertops in her home? I ask because these are activities/objects that are associated with radiation that CAN cause cancer.

You get the same amount of radiation when flying in the air for 2 hours as you do when you get a chest x-ray. The higher your altitude is the more radiation you get. Bricks are made of materials, some of which have radioactive properties. Some granites are radiation emitters.

There was an article in a medical journal that I want to tell you about, but first there are a few things that I need to explain before I get into it. The goverment has strict guidelines for radiation workers in order to keep us safe. They require us to wear what are called dosimeters. Dosimeters are badges that measure the amount of radaition that someone is exposed to. They are sent to a lab once a month or every three months (depending on your job). The results are sent back to the radiation safety manager. If you reach the allotted yearly radiation dose (which I have never heard of), then you are basically unemployed for the remainder of the year. This article was talked about by the radiation oncologist that I work for so I don't know what journal, but do know it was a medical one. I have also googled this and there are a number of stories about this issue.

So this article talks about a radiologist who had very expensive granite countertops put into his kitchen. He had always taken his home and put it on his kitchen counter at night. When his results came back the next month, they couldn't figure out why he had over a full year of allowable radiation exposure in one month. They asked him if he maybe left his dosimeter in one of the radiation rooms for a few days, etc. He confessed that he took it home after work every day. They then went to his home and measured the radiation output of this new granite countertop and found that it was quite radioactive. Not sure what happened after that, but the moral of the story is that you run into radiation exposure everyday. Do I say ignore it, no. But should you deny yourself a few conviences, no.

Personally speaking as a radiation therapist and professional, I don't think you need to worry. Radiowaves have such a low frequency that I doubt they can interact with much.

If you want to read up on different eectromagnetic radiations, google electromagnetic spectrum. This classification includes x-rays, cosmic rays, light, radiowaves, and microwaves. It can give you more information for you to decide on.

Hope this helps and sorry about the long response, it just annoys me when people fuel fear.

From your healthy radiation therapist who exclusively uses cell phones and portable phones. :)
Ursela

Permalink Reply by Stefanie on October 2, 2010 at 10:51am

I wish there were "like" buttons on here sometimes like there are on facebook! I was thinking the same things when I read this post about the friend. I start to worry about stuff and then decide that I can't live worrying about everything! I'd be too stressed out all the time especially with worrying about D and what it brings daily!

Permalink Reply by Gil DePaula on June 11, 2010 at 12:52pm

You should not be concerned at all. If cell phones were an issue we would have literally BILLIONS of people with brain cancer in the world. These devices have been around for decades already.