The negative impact of cell phones on health certainly exists, but it is generally not dramatically bad and you have the ability to keep things under control.
We all know that today’s technology, however useful and practical it may be, under certain circumstances can be harmful to us – both on a physical and psychological level. Research is continuously being conducted into what it is like the impact of smartphones on healthand so far several things have been established that are good to know.
You can get acquainted with it in the following text what are the most common negative health consequences of mobile phones and how can you significantly mitigate them.
Back and neck problems
While eating, walking, training or lying in bed, but also while looking at the phone, people hold their body, more precisely their neck and spine, in most cases in an unnatural position and thus stretch the neck muscles. This leads to stiffness or poor posture, which can later lead to more serious problems such as headaches and pain in this part of the body due to temporary or permanent deformities.
The way you could reduce this problem, if you are using a device for a long period of time, is to straighten up and stretch every twenty minutes.
Also, if at all possible, hold the phone at eye level in order to reduce the impact of the mobile phone on health in terms of additional fatigue of the neck muscles and spine.
Weakening of vision
It often happens that we hold the phone very close to our eyes in order to more easily read a message, e-mail or the content of a website. However, due to the wavelength of the blue light emitted by the phone screen, the optic nerve begins to tire and thus causes eye pain.
In some situations, especially in children who are developing, this practice can even lead to damage to the cornea and, consequently, to weakening of vision.
You can reduce these symptoms by reducing the amount of time you use your phone or computer on a daily basis. You can also use artificial tears to avoid drying out the eyeballs.
It is worth noting that most phones today have a function to reduce harmful blue light. This function is most often found in the display settings options. After activating this option, the screen will look too yellow for the next few minutes, until your eyes get used to it, and the reason for this is the reduced emission of the blue spectrum.
The impact of mobile phones on general health and sleep
It happens more and more often that listening to some music or podcasts, or even watching a video on the phone is necessary for us to fall asleep. Some people have a habit of looking at their phone until they fall asleep to the point that they often fall asleep holding the phone in their hands.
There are several reasons why this is so. Nowadays, it is a very simple and quick escape from reality and people have less and less desire to spend time alone with their thoughts, and spend hours on the phone, ignoring headaches, pain in the neck and hands.
However, the more time we spend this way, on our devices, our memory becomes worse and our attention span decreases, leading to negative consequences in our daily lives. Of course, there is a way in which this can be reduced or completely eradicated.
The first step to disconnecting from your phone would be to delete unnecessary apps that you know are distracting. Then, try to use your phone less and less each night until you are able to go to sleep without it. This requires a lot of effort and persistence. It will happen that you give up, but that’s okay. You can always try tomorrow, you just have to be persistent.
Another reason why bad sleep happens is the emission of blue light, which we have already mentioned, which has a bad effect on sleep. That is why it would be ideal not to use the phone for at least an hour before going to bed.
SAR values and ventilation of mobile phones
Every phone emits some amount of non-ionizing radiation during its operation, which is expressed through the SAR value. Keep in mind that this is non-ionizing radiation and should not be confused with ionizing (gamma) radiation.
Specific Absorption Rateor abbreviated SARis an internationally accepted unit of measure for the maximum energy that our body is allowed to absorb.
The way you can detect and feel radiation is the heating of your body tissues. Thus, if you have a long conversation on the phone, you will notice that your ear has warmed up slightly.
The SAR value of the phone is determined through testing, and this figure is stated in the specification of the device itself. However, it is necessary to be aware that SAR varies depending on how we use our phone.
So, for example, if we hold the phone directly to the ear, the SAR value will be higher, while if we use headphones, it will, of course, be lower.
Therefore, it is recommended that, whenever possible, you should put the smartphone away from you during the conversation and use headphones. In this way, you can reduce the impact of mobile phones on health and reduce the amount of radiation that passes through your body.