When World Health Organization released their position about cellphone usage being linked to brain tumors and brain cancer, people started to look at their handheld units and asked how dangerous is this mobile device to one's health?

It's all in the SAR - Specific Absorption Rate, a measure of the amount of radio frequency (RF) energy absorbed by the body when using the handset. All cell phones emit RF energy and the SAR varies by handset model. 

Mobile phones received a good-to-go sign (FCC Certificate) if the SAR is met. However, every countries have their own specified SAR level. The United States, its maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. In Europe, the level is capped at 2 watts per kilogram, while Canada allows a maximum of 1.6 watts per kilogram.

In order to have peace of mind, and not be bothered on how much radiation your cellphone is emitting, www.cnet.com, released the top 20 highest-radiation and 20 lowest-radiation cellphones in the US.

I wrote something about increased brain activity when we use our cellphones in making calls (More Reasons to Use Your Cellphone?)

Last May 31, the WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields associated with wireless phone use as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). This means that cellphone could cause the development of brain glioma or brain cancer. The study concluded that the tumor would be more likely to be on the side that people use the phone.

According to WHO, "from May 24–31 2011, a Working Group of 31 scientists from 14 countries has been meeting at IARC in Lyon, France, to assess the potential carcinogenic hazards from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields."

"The Working Group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40% increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period," WHO added. 
This research is highly important. Based on last year's estimates from Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular, there are 86.6 million cellphone users in the country. In 2008, the SMS count was almost 250 billion. 

Announcer: Parents and caregivers have always been fascinated with the development of children- their physical and intellectual growth. Studying the development of the adolescent brain has been the life work of National Institute of Mental Health researcher Dr. Jay Giedd.

Dr. Giedd: At different ages of life certain parts of the brain have much more dynamic growth than at other times. And so for very early in life we have our five senses where our visual system and audio system is getting established and optimized for the world around us. In adolescents, the key changes are in the frontal part of the brain involved in controlling our impulses, long range planning, judgment, decision making.

Announcer: Imaging has shown by the time children reach the first grade the physical size of the brain is nearly complete. But what goes on within the brain is nothing short of remarkable.

Dr. Giedd: The brain can grow extra connections sort of like branches, twigs and roots to use a gardening metaphor and then after it has these connections there’s also another gardening metaphor called pruning or cutting back or eliminating the excess or unused connections. And it’s this process of overproducing and then having fierce competition amongst all these connections to see which ones are most useful and which are most helpful for us to adapt to the environment.

Announcer: Our brains have been challenged by the effects of multi-tasking in many ways brought on by the age of social media and use of computer gadgets.

Dr. Giedd: The way that we get information, entertain ourselves and interact with each other has changed more in the last ten years than in the previous five hundred- since Gutenberg’s introduction of the printing press. And so these changes are a real challenge for researchers because they happen so rapidly. So, that adolescents today average about eleven and a half hours of media time. And this is up from six and a half hours just five years ago so that the activities of children and teens has been changing so much. We’ve been challenged- how do we keep up with the changing world and how do we assess the impact for good or for bad on the developing brain.

Announcer: So how well are our children handing multi-tasking in a digital age that changes, seemingly, by the hour? Early evidence suggests -pretty well. In fact, the human brain has a track record of successfully adapting to challenges it wasn’t initially designed to take on- such as reading.

Dr. Giedd: It’s sobering to realize most humans that have lived and died have never read. And so, we’ve been able to change what our brain does based on having the written word and having this environment. And so now the questions is will we be able to change to keep up with the new flood of information coming from all kinds of sources. And up until now the human brain has done a great job of changing- adapting to these environments but there are limitations to this capacity. And so it will be very interesting to see that these so-called digital natives… the children that have grow up never not knowing the multimedia devices… whether their brains will be able to adapt differently than older people.

Announcer: So, what was the human brain originally developed to do? Well, Dr. Giedd says our brains are fundamentally designed to learn through example.

Dr. Giedd: This learning by example is very powerful and that parents are teaching even when they don’t realize they are teaching just by how they handle everyday aspects of their life. How they treat each other as spouses. How they talk about work. When they get stuck in traffic. How they manage their time and their emotions. And this is how most of the teaching is done. It’s not when you set down at these special moments and have a conversation- it’s the everyday moments that really have a huge impact on how the brain forms and adapts.

Announcer: Through the work of Dr. Giedd and his colleagues, we’ve learned so much about the development of the adolescent brain. But researchers like Dr. Giedd may be entering a new golden age of research… as these so-called “digital natives” lead us to new findings in the ever-evolving childhood brain.

Adapted from: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/media/video/giedd.shtml

Education for wanna-be nurses have undergone massive evolution. When Florence Nightingale started the era of Professional Nursing, she must have foreseen that nurses will need more medical knowledge (just like doctors) and evidenced-based practices in order to delivery quality patient care.

But with the massive information that we need to teach students on anatomy and physiology, basic and advanced nursing courses and specializations, not to mention the importance of research and advancing technology that they need to cope up, there is the improbability that learning may come short. 

Maybe you would agree with me that aside from reading the voluminous textbooks and surfing the net for latest medical information, you would also include your search on "How to Pass Nursing School" or "Tips on Studying Nursing" just to appease yourself with the idea that you can compress every available data related to nursing into your cerebellum and make use of these knowledge if the need arises.

Well, suffer no more! In the lead article of Academic Medicine, brain scientists have recommended 10 tips on surviving medical school. Although the article specifically mentioned "education of doctors", I believe that this can also be applied in the education of nurses.