Mobile phones

[SusanB-M1]

May I ask for help in finding evidence that mobile phones do not burn people. My son has just phoned to say that the girls were saying they'd heard this can happen and 'it's on the net'. My son, who works with a company who make something to do with testing mobile phones, said it was rubbish of course, but I said I'd put the question to the excellent people on JREF and then I can post a link to my granddaughters.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Blue Bubble]

Maybe what they'd heard was the massive recall of batteries (Matsushita) made by Nokia this week (46 million of them), and you know how these Chinese whispers can escalate.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Susan, proving a negative is always hard. Plus, no doubt some people have been burned by phones, just as some people have by flashlights, transistor radios, or anything else containing a battery.

I never heard anyone say he has been burned by a cellphone. It might be worth asking those who say it happens whether they have been burned, or whether they just heard about it from a friend of their sister's hairdresser.

 

[Goshawk]

Susan, you can tell the girls that it's very, very rare, the problem has mostly been dealt with, and generally speaking it's not something they need to worry about unless they're using counterfeit Chinese phones with counterfeit batteries.

2004. Girl burned when cell phone catches fire.

2005. 10-Year-Old Boy Burned After Cell Phone Explodes

Those were the only two I could find on Google--the purported cell phone fire in Vallejos, California, was later debunked by a fire investigator who showed that the phone in question still worked, and you could make a phone call with it, and that the battery was undamaged.

2007. And there's this:

Federal authorities have reported very rare instances of cell phones catching on fire. Between roughly 2002 and 2004, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission received 83 reports of cell phones catching on fire. In 2004, there were an estimated 170 million cell phone users in the United States. Today, there are 219 million.

As far as I can tell, all the manufacturers of the phones involved have recalled either the phones or the batteries or both.

And there are some useful tips for avoiding the whole problem in the first place here.

So, really, it isn't something that I'd waste much time worrying about.

I have not the slightest qualms in carrying (and using) a cell phone myself, nor about my two daughters, one son, and one son-in-law also all carrying (and using) cell phones. And I've been pestering Hubby to "get one, for heaven's sakes". And I'm the one in my family who goes down in the basement every time the tornado sirens go off, not just when "it looks pretty bad out there." You can tell the girls that there's a JREF Worrywart Mom who isn't worried.

 

[baron]

Your grand-daughters are hundreds of times more likely to suffer injury due to being mugged for their phones rather than any defect of the phone itself.

 

[SusanB-M1]

Thank you all very much for the information and links; much appreciated. I'll pass it on to them.

 

[Big Les]

Oh, and the idea of them igniting petrol pumps is nonsense too, as seen on Mythbusters.

 

[kerikiwi]

'It's on the net' is hardly evidence for anything. Your mokopuna (grandkids) need to understand that absolutely everything imaginable and unimaginable is on the net.
Along with cellphones catching fire, there are TV sets, toasters, and even the occasional case of spontaneous human combustion (I bet that's on the net too)

 

[DRBUZZ0]

By "Burn" I am assuming you mean like a heat burn? An acute effect? As opposed to these claims that it could increase your risks for cancer or some other problem?

If so, it's pretty evident that they don't. They could never produce enough energy to cause any sort of appreciable tissue heating, like a microwave oven. I have had my phone get a bit warm on long calls, just from the battery being discharged, but that's not nearly enough to burn. Perhaps if there were a malfunction of the battery, but I presume you'd take it away from your ear if it started smoking and smoldering.

So short answer: NO

 

[Azrael 5]

Occasionally my ear gets hot with repeated use of mobile phone,could be a pressure thing or a heat thing.I've really no idea.

 

[DRBUZZ0]

Occasionally my ear gets hot with repeated use of mobile phone,could be a pressure thing or a heat thing.I've really no idea.

I get what you're saying but I assume you do not mean burned as in blistered or even a first degree burn. Which is the OP this seems to imply

 

[skeptifem]

that exploding battery thing was awhile back. i did tech support for cell phones when the recall started. thats the only time i can recall anything remotely similar happening. cell phone problems are usually reaaaallly boring and uneventful.

 

[Goshawk]

By "Burn" I am assuming you mean like a heat burn? An acute effect? As opposed to these claims that it could increase your risks for cancer or some other problem?

If so, it's pretty evident that they don't. They could never produce enough energy to cause any sort of appreciable tissue heating, like a microwave oven. I have had my phone get a bit warm on long calls, just from the battery being discharged, but that's not nearly enough to burn. Perhaps if there were a malfunction of the battery, but I presume you'd take it away from your ear if it started smoking and smoldering.

So short answer: NO

*cough* See my links. It did happen, at least 83 times so far, that a cell phone actually did explode and catch fire. So Susan's granddaughters are merely catching up on some old news via teen gossip.

 

[SusanB-M1]

#7 - 13

Thank you for your posts and I'll pass this info too on to the girls.

 

[bjornart]

Occasionally my ear gets hot with repeated use of mobile phone,could be a pressure thing or a heat thing.I've really no idea.

A Norwegian uni did a study on this and found very little difference in temperature changes when subjects "used" a turned-off phone, a turned-on, but non-functional, phone and a transmitting phone.

 

[DRBUZZ0]

*cough* See my links. It did happen, at least 83 times so far, that a cell phone actually did explode and catch fire. So Susan's granddaughters are merely catching up on some old news via teen gossip.

Yes I realize this is a risk with faulty lithium ion batteries, but it's rare and only some batteries seem prone to it. It's hardly a real risk with cell phones in general.

 

[Big Les]

Azrael - try the same with a landline phone and bear in mind your possible confirmation bias - you should find no more heating than with the mobile.

If it does seem worse with the mobile, the main difference I can think of is that typically you will tend to clamp the mobile to your ear more in order to make up for environmental noise and a possibly worse connection.

 

[Cuddles]

A Norwegian uni did a study on this and found very little difference in temperature changes when subjects "used" a turned-off phone, a turned-on, but non-functional, phone and a transmitting phone.

I can't find any links right now, but I read an article that said your ear gets hot if you hold anything up to your ear. Makes sense really, if you cover up any part of your body it gets hot. Since we're not used to holding things against our ears for long periods it seems fairly logical that we'd notice that more than other body parts. Simple experiment. Hold your hand against your (other) arm for a few minutes. Now do the same for your ear. They both get hot, but you only really notice the ear being hot.

I suspect that there are also circulation issues that mean your ear really does heat up more as well.

 

[rwguinn]

Yes I realize this is a risk with faulty lithium ion batteries, but it's rare and only some batteries seem prone to it. It's hardly a real risk with cell phones in general.

LI-Poly batteries, if the charger goes South, or the chargee-protection circuits within the phone fail, can and do "discharge rapidly with flame"
Us model airplane guys use the Lithium Polymer batteries that don't have all the goodies in the batteries (all kinds of charging fault-detection stuff), and usually charge them in a steel box, just in case. I've had it happen one time.
It generally happens during the charging process.