“What stands out is the consistency of the association of exposure and disease. The evidence, as I see it, is sufficiently strong that there needs to be public warnings, there needs to be establishments of exposure guidelines and that the present guidelines — in Canada, the United States or anyone else — are not protective of human health.
“I see us facing a major problem in the future because of the fact that young children are on cellphones constantly, and we may be setting ourselves up for an epidemic of brain cancer, the same thing we did with cigarette smoking and lung cancer.”
According to Columbia University physiology professor Martin Blank, who edited the special issue, the laboratory studies “point to significant interactions” of both power frequency and radio frequency with cellular components, especially DNA.
The epidemiological studies “point to increased risk” of developing certain cancers associated with long-term exposure to radio frequency, he said.
Learned about this story through Tina Su‘s Tweet. Thanks for that link Tina!
Basically don’t stop thinking. You’ve graduated from a fine school perhaps, but that’s no reason to stop learning. The benefits of education don’t end.
Some studies even suggest a correlation between longevity and continuing education.
Reading won’t just stave off Alzheimer’s by exercising your mind, you will learn to make better decisions in all aspects of your life.
Learning new things improves your job prospects or can help you succeed in your own business.
The Internet is great for researching topics and quickly jumping to a piece of information with a Google search. But what about deeper learning? There are libraries of ebooks that you can read for free. Many of the classics of literature. There are course that you can take online. Free course materials that you can dig through at your own pace. Educational Podcasts.
You could easily lose yourself for eight hours a day with all of these resources. However, you know the Families and Technology shtick: The Internet is a wonderful tool, but it should not supplant the very valuable interaction with real people, the outdoors, and actually doing things.
If you find yourself getting addicted to online learning, install ComputerTime to reintroduce some balance in your activities.
How do you make good use of information resources?
The report said that those who listened for five hours a week at high-volume settings exposed themselves to more noise than permitted in the noisiest factory or work place. Maximum volume on some devices can generate as much noise as an airplane taking off nearby.
The study — from a team of nine specialists on the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks — also warns that young people do not realize the damage until years later. (NYT)
Later in the eighties, I remember hearing or reading that Kerry Livgren (keyboardist/guitarist from Kansas) put out his own PSA of sorts warning of hearing loss and he spoke from personal experience:
A recent occurrence in my life has compelled me to write this letter. It concerns a subject that is relevant to everyone — our sense of hearing.
I have been a professional musician since 1965. I spent years playing in clubs, schools, and all the other types of gigs that musicians do, not counting the myriad hours spent in rehearsals. As the
guitarist-keyboardist for Kansas, I have recorded ten albums with that group, two solo albums, and three more albums with the group A.D. In addition to all that studio time, my ears logged thousands of hours of high-decibel concerts, sound checks, etc., over fourteen years of touring.
I recently completed recording my first instrumental project for Sparrow records, and I was schedules to master it in Nashville. The night before my mastering date I was rudely awakened at 3 a.m. by a loud ringing in my right year. I had experienced something like this before, but never at so alarming a level. It was still there in the morning, so I had to rely on the ears of other engineers and friends at the mastering facility.
When I got home, I went through a battery of tests with doctors and audiologists who told me what I suspected anyway: noise-induced hearing loss. Even though for the last several years I have been monitoring at very conservative levels, my ears seem to have been seriously affected, and the prognosis for this type of damage to one’s hearing is not very encouraging.
Little or nothing can be done about it. Unfortunately, our lives do not have an “Undo” command. If I had one, I would most certainly use it, for in retrospect all those wonderful decibels that were so exciting at the time were destroying the very means I had of perceiving them. Now my career, and other areas of my life, are in question, for deafness destroys a great deal more than just the enjoyment of music. All of these wonderful toys we read about in this publication [Electronic Musician] become scrap metal without a God-given ear to hear them with.
It’s not worth it, my friends. Rock and roll takes its toll. I wish I had listened to my dad in 1965 when he opened the garage door and yelled: “Can’t you turn it down and still enjoy it?”
The concerns about Families and Technology extend beyond this blog. SoftwareTime is a company founded on the idea that technology affects families in many ways. Balance and responsible use of technologies is important. SoftwareTime's products will help.
