Do Mobile Phones Cause More Harm than Good? - Open Journal of Social Sciences

JSS > Vol.7 No.8, August 2019

Do Mobile Phones Cause More Harm than Good? ()

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DOI: 10.4236/jss.2019.78014 1,833 Downloads 39,678 Views Citations

Author(s)

Rohan Mani

Affiliation(s)

McLean High School, McLean, VA, USA.

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.

KEYWORDS

Mobile Phones, Hazardous, Harmful Health Effects, Life Cycle Assessment, Heavy Metals

Share and Cite:

Mani, R. (2019) Do Mobile Phones Cause More Harm than Good?. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 7, 198-205. doi: 10.4236/jss.2019.78014.

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