TITLE:
Do Mobile Phones Cause More Harm than Good?
AUTHORS:
Rohan Mani
KEYWORDS:
Mobile Phones, Hazardous, Harmful Health Effects, Life Cycle Assessment, Heavy Metals
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.7 No.8,
August
20,
2019
ABSTRACT: Mobile phones
have significantly transformed our lives over the past decade. There is even
evidence to suggest that mobile phones have revolutionized the lives of
millions of people in poverty by increasing their access to education, weather
information (particularly important for farmers and fishermen) and critical
knowledge pertaining to business and healthcare from even remotest locations.
While mobile phones are transforming societies and economies for the better,
little is known about their harmful effects on people and the planet. There is
a growing research area that is now looking at the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
of mobile phone technology, that involves risks to health of the workers
engaged in extracting the raw materials (metals and solvents) used in the
manufacture of mobile phones, health risks to workers during production of the
various components (plastics and heavy metals), risks to consumers, and risk to
the ecosystem when the phones are thrown away in a landfill or burned in an incinerator.
This paper makes a contribution in this area by bringing together existing
evidence on how mobile phone usage is associated with significant health risks.
This ranges from radiation exposure to sleep disorder to withdrawal and
depression at the other extreme especially among youth. Also, damning evidence
linking road accidents and mobile phone usage can no longer be ignored. This
paper delves into this emerging literature while providing possible solutions
on how we can manage and mitigate this growing challenge.