Since I know nothing about this subject, I decided to come to because it’s probably best if it’s explained that way.
How do these radios hurt people? Have people been hurt before?
In: 4
There have been some studies that show that ham radio operators get certain types of cancers at a higher rate than non-operators. The 3 types of cancer that seem to be in an elevated rate are leukemia, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma.
There seems to be some evidence that it might be caused by either the equipment in their homes not being shielded enough, leading to higher exposure to radio waves. Or, that many times the antenna they have are not high enough off the ground. In comparison to like a radio station’s transmitter.
The research, however, was not a big enough pool to point to ham radio as being the definite source. Since ham radio operators are a minority of the total population, the study participant pools were smaller.
In one study:
>Dr. Samuel Milham Jr. of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services studied the deaths of 2,485 Washington and California ham operators between 1979 and 1984.
He reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology that 29 leukemia deaths would be expected in a group of people that size, but he found 36 deaths. Statistically, he expected to find 72 lymphatic and blood-forming organ cancers, but found 89. And he expected to find 67.6 deaths from prostate cancer, but found 78.
So as you can see it’s just a small uptick because the number of operators were small.
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