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08 February 2012

Answer to Question #2797 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Cell Phones

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

I am a student at New York University. I am doing a research paper on cell phones and brain cancer. My question is that I know cancer can be caused when our body is exposed to doses of 50 cGy or higher. What does cGy stand for? What doses do cell phones emit?

The term cGy (centigray) is a unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation such as x rays or gamma rays. Cell phones do not emit ionizing radiation. They emit nonionizing radiation, namely radiofrequency (RF) energy. Absorption of nonionizing radiation in the body is measured in terms of the specific absorption rate (SAR) in units of watts per kilogram. Both ionizing and nonionizing radiation are forms of electromagnetic energy. The difference is that ionizing radiation has sufficient energy per photon to cause ionization of molecules. Nonionizing radiation does not. It is the ionizing effect of ionizing radiation that has been linked to increased risk of cancer. For more information on cell phones and health check out a Medical College of Wisconsin website. For more information on ionizing versus nonionizing radiation check out a University of Michigan website. Gary Zeman, ScD, CHP Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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