Is Car Radiation Like Cellphone Radiation? Could the Dangers Be Exaggerated Here Too?
Most people conceive of radiation as damaging energy waves, which cause damage to the body. But here’s a fact: not all radiation is the same.
Here’s a breakdown of what cars and cell phones are radiating, and why one might be more worrying than the other.
Cell Phone Radiation: What’s Happening at Gigahertz Frequencies?
Cell phones emit radio waves at the gigahertz (GHz) band – that is, their waves “resonate” billions of times per second. The main effect at these high frequencies is heating. For example, consider how a microwave cooks food; they use the same radio waves, but at much greater frequencies.
Holding a phone to your ear creates a modest amount of heat in your skin and tissues. In most humans, this is very little, and probably will not harm us unless we are exposed to it for long periods or intense amounts of time. That’s why there’s so much rhetoric about the percentage of time spent on the phone that’s considered “safe.”
Car Radiation: A Totally Different Story at Low Frequencies
Radiation from automobiles is a different matter. When driving an electric and hybrid vehicle, the primary problem is the magnetic fields generated by the electric motors that power the vehicle. These work at much lower frequencies — in hertz (Hz). One hertz is one cycle per second, and so these fields bounce off the wall tens or hundreds of times per second – far less than cell phone radiation does billions of times a second.
Consider the waves that come when you drop a pebble in a pond. If cell phone waves are like small, rapid ripples, car magnetic fields are like large, slow ripples. These slow ripples interact with the human body in ways that can impact biological processes, particularly those dependent on electrical activity such as:
- The Nervous System: Magnetic fields can disrupt nerve signaling, causing things such as tiredness or concentrating.
- Cellular Functions: Some research suggests that these fields could disrupt, for example, cell repair or reproduction.
What Should You Expect from Non-Thermal Side Effects?
What distinguishes the two forms of radiation is their effect:
- Thermal Effects (Cell Phones): These are almost exclusively heat-driven, and can be reversed. For example, if your skin is warming up from your phone, it cools when you’re not using it.
- Non-Thermal Effects (Cars): These don’t heat but can tamper with the body’s biological functions. For instance, some studies have indicated that exposure to magnetic fields might interfere with sleep or lead to elevated stress levels (source: National Library of Medicine).
Non-thermal effects are more challenging to predict and quantify than thermal effects, so that makes them even more worrying.
Why Don’t We Know More About It?
Magnetic field dangers are not so discussed as other health threats, at least not in the same way, in part because the technology is still quite novel. It’s taken years – or decades – for scientists to begin to fully appreciate the implications of novel technologies over the long term.
Think of the time it took for humans to realize the risks of smoking or asbestos. In a similar way, car radiation worries may become clearer as more research goes on.
What Does This Mean For the Future?
Now that electric and hybrid vehicles are common, knowing the health impact of those vehicles is important. Should we wait for hard evidence of damage, or should we start taking steps to prepare?
Well, that’s a question we should all ask.
