OK, first of all I need to admit that I don’t like cell phones. While I carry one for work, I probably wouldn’t own one if I didn’t. I figure that if I were able to get through the first 50 years of my life without one, I can get through the next 100 the same way.
I am not a person who enjoys talking on the phone in the first place. I have more important things to do with my life — like watching TV. Or eating. Or sleeping.
And that texting stuff — I wouldn’t know how to start putting in a letter. Not that I couldn’t learn it; I don’t want to learn it. For what possible reason would I want to work at typing out a message on a little phone. It’s tough enough with my big hands to work on a keyboard.
Besides, if you have a phone in your hand, why wouldn’t your rather talk to the person rather than send messages back and forth.
Cell phones are dangerous. People talking while driving are a real nuisance. Since they say that the number of accidents with people talking on cell phones is proportionate to the number of people in accidents from drunk driving, there’s no doubt it should be outlawed.
Where are all those Mothers Against Drunk Driving when it comes to the equally dangerous driving while talking on cell phones. I’ll tell you where they are. They’re out there driving while talking on cell phones.
Just think of people who drink then drive and talk on a cell phone. Yikes!
Cell phones are also dangerous for people talking while sitting at a table in a restaurant. They are liable to choke to death. No, not because they might choke on food. Other people around would like to strangle them for ruining their dinners.
But in Friday’s paper, I saw a story that should be the final nail in the coffin so to speak. Dr. Ronald B. Heberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, warns that cell-phone use can increase the risk of cancer. Especially when it concerns children.
While the scientific evidence isn’t completed yet, he said there are enough indications that cell phones do increase the cancer risk.
The risk concerns the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the phone. And obviously, when children have bodies and minds that are still growing, it would create a greater risk for them.
But hey, how many people are going to change? We know that smoking can kill you, as well as harm people around you. But people still do it.
How many times do you see people driving around smoking with kids in the car. Whether you put a window down or not, they are still getting a dose of secondary smoke.
Or course the kid probably doesn’t mind because his mom is smoking while driving to the store to buy him a cell phone!
The Herald’s Lynn Saternow writes this column each Saturday for the Opinion page.
