Ask A Scientist© Environmental Science Archive

Author:     chelle
Text:       With all the cellular phones, computer, radars, ham radios, TV's, 
beepers, microwaves, satellites systems, etc.: Are our airwaves electronically 
polluted?

Response #: 1 o f 1
Author:     Don Libby
Text:       This could be a problem if all the people using the devices did 
not cooperate to keep out of each other's way (or off of each other's 
wavelength to be more accurate). The Federal Communications Commission 
regulates the airwaves, giving legal authority to commercial operators to use 
only certain broadcast frequencies in certain areas - that is why radio 
stations all have different numbers on the dial. That is really more a problem 
of overcrowding, rather than "pollution". There is some debate over whether 
all these devices (or any of them) may have a negative effect on human health. 
Questions have been raised about a link between miscarriages by pregnant women 
and the use of video display terminals, for example. The evidence is too weak 
to really answer the question, because some other factor (such as on-the-job 
stress) may have been at work, rather than the electronic "pollution". At any 
rate, in the office where I used to work, the labor union got a job-rule 
passed saying that people could not be seated closer than two feet to a screen 
from the front, or four feet from the back of a video terminal. Better safe 
than sorry, I guess. This question is still under study.