Sivani Saravanamuttu and Sudarsanam Dorairaj
An enormous growth in the telecommunication industry has led to an increase in the usage of a number of wireless devices. The impact of working in an environment saturated with wireless radiation needs to be explored. A questionnaire was prepared based on 18 non-specific health symptoms and medical conditions. It was circulated among professionals (n=200) in the Information Technology (IT) companies and the data was statistically analyzed. Both male and female IT professionals possessed cell phones (100%), 19.66% used cordless phones and 2.25% of them used the landline telephones. When compared to the males, it was found that 80.4% of the females used wireless computer networks (p>0.01), 27.2% used the microwave ovens (p>0.01) and 47.8% used Bluetooth devices (p>0.001). Significant non-specific symptoms (p>0.001) seen in females were headaches, tremors, depression, blurred vision, irritability, difficulty concentrating, chronic pain, pain in teeth and deteriorated fillings, and dryness of lips, tongue, mouth and eyes. The males had poor short-term memory, difficulty sleeping and fatigue. Significant medical conditions noted in the females were allergies and asthma at 18.5% (p>0.001) and skin problems at 26.1% (p>0.01), and in the males were eye-related problems at 21.1% (p>0.01). Non-thermal effects of wireless radiation need to be investigated globally in the coming years.
