- Technology has changed our lives in so many ways, most
of which we hardly notice. Imagine a world without e-mail. Think about
what a pain it would be if you suddenly had your mobile-phone privileges
revoked. Try to picture life without the microchip; houses without central
heating; a world without telephones. Where would we be without plumbing
or freezers?
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- But for all the benefits, emerging technologies are often
opposed by society. During the Industrial Revolution there was widespread
fear about machines doing away with people's livelihoods - at one point
in 1812, more British troops were deployed against the Luddite rebellion
against the industrial loom than were opposing Napoleon's pan-European
rampage.
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- Now we are in the middle of another technology explosion.
This time, we're worried about how technology affects our bodies. We worry
about radiation from mobile phones; about the kinds of content we might
encounter online; and about the damage being done to our children by all
of the above. Fifteen years ago it was radiation leaking from our nasty
VDUs. But perhaps we aren't worried enough. Is today's ubiquitous technology
bad for you? Can it, in fact, erase you from existence before you're even
conceived...
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- Research published in December last year suggests that
the heat from laptops can do permanent damage to a man's fertility. A pilot
study of 29 men in the US found that heat from the processor can cause
the temperature of the testes to rise almost three degrees: more than enough
to fatally damage sperm. Compounding the heating effect of your snazzy
new notebook, of course, is that you will tend to sit with your legs closer
together when balancing it on your knees. This, the researchers say, traps
the testes, causing them to heat even further.
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- Scientists at the State University of New York at Stony
Brook, where the research was carried out, think that, much like a hot
bath, the effect is temporary. They point out that the population of Silicon
Valley seems unaffected.
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- Don't think you can relax once you make it to the womb.
Should you narrowly escape being eliminated by a laptop while the potential
you is still separate sperm and egg cells, you could easily be fried by
radio-frequency radiation while you are busily dividing your cells and
growing at a quite alarming rate.
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- This kind of non-ionising radiation - that is, not the
Sellafield kind - is emitted by mobile phones, phone masts, microwave ovens
and televisions. Lower frequencies are generated by high-voltage power
lines, or badly wired homes. The National Radiological Protection Board
says that children and the elderly are more sensitive to these fields,
and recommends limiting exposure. And more recently, research funded by
the European Union showed that radiation from mobile phones can actually
alter DNA.
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- While there was no evidence that the changes to DNA led
to diseases, the researchers still recommend using landlines instead of
mobile phones. So while you are a developing foetus, you had better hope
your mum-to-be isn't chatting to her mum for too long on her mobile phone.
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- Assuming that by some miracle you survive this technological
onslaught, you will be born. That's when your troubles with technology
really begin.
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- Exposure to magnetic fields is anecdotally linked with
childhood leukaemia in Canada, the US and Sweden. In early 2004 the UK's
National Radioloigcal Protection Board said that increases in cancer rates
had been found in areas where exposure was well within international guidelines.
In areas with particularly strong magnetic fields, the risk of childhood
leukaemia was doubled.
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- Surely schools will be safe? Perhaps not. In November,
a judge ruled that there was no reason for the next-generation mobile-phone
masts not to be erected near schools, despite government advice to limit
childhood exposure.
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- School trips are not safe, either. Hi-tech public lavatories
can trap people for hours at a time. A 10-year-old in Plymouth had to be
freed from the loo by the fire brigade, last April, after the doors wouldn't
open. He was too light to alert the weight-sensitive detectors to his presence.
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- As you mature, you will be allowed access to the internet,
and will almost certainly be given a games console of some kind. The biggest
danger this kind of technology poses is that you might use it too much.
In 2001, the British Medical Journal reported that more than one in five
of Britain's under-fours was classed as overweight, and one in 10 was clinically
obese. Researchers from the University of Leeds found similar figures for
11-year-olds.
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- Obesity can lead to diabetes, arthritis, heart disease,
hypertension and stroke. It is linked with a host of cancers, including
breast cancer and cancer of the oesophagus. It is also reported to be a
risk factor for hepatitis and other liver disease.
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- Although much of the blame for this can be attributed
to changes in our eating patterns, a more sedentary lifestyle is another
big factor, and technology is what has given us all the opportunity to
spend more time sitting down.
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- American research attributes more than half the weight
gain to "declining physical activity from technological changes",
which means your kids are fat because they're e-mailing their friends pictures
of footballers rather than playing football with their friends outside.
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- Of course the biggest single question about health and
technology is whether mobile phones will give you cancer. The amount of
research is this area is staggering: in June a Hungarian study found that
men who keep a mobile phone in their pockets have reduced their sperm count
by 30 per cent; and in October, research from Sweden found that mobile-phone
users were twice as likely to develop a particular kind of benign tumour.
But for every study that indicates damage, there is another that says the
phones are perfectly safe.
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- The Stewart report, published in the UK a year ago, reviewed
all the evidence and concluded that it couldn't draw any conclusions about
the dangers of phone radiation. Instead it recommended that the public
take a precautionary approach.
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- Even if you manage not to develop a tumour, mobile phones
can still kill you in unexpected ways. Using a mobile phone is as dangerous
as drink-driving. Driving while using a hands-free mobile increases your
chance of crashing by four times - the same as drink-driving.
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- If you make it to the office without a mobile-related
car accident, using a computer at work will cause you plenty of additional
problems. Touch-typing can cause repetitive-strain injury, sitting hunched
over your desk will give you backache, eating lunch at your desk makes
your workplace more germ-riddled than a lavatory seat. Research from Japan
suggests that staring at computer screens for hours on end can contribute
to the onset of glaucoma, a progressive disease that gradually damages
the optic nerve, eventually causing blindness. And so the list goes on.
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- Is it any wonder, then, that technology has been blamed
for rising stress levels? Spend even the tiniest fraction of time on the
internet and you will find yourself under siege. Spam, viruses and straightforward
network crashes will all conspire to send your blood pressure spiralling.
In Spain, people are paying for so-called "damage therapy", where,
for a fee, they are allowed to take a hammer to technology and vent all
their frustration.
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- If you survive all that, and you still want to use a
computer, you still need to be careful. In 2002 a 50-year-old man suffered
severe burns to his penis after using a laptop for an hour. A letter describing
the incident was published in the medical journal The Lancet.
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- But despite all this, technology is far from a blight
on modern life. E-mail allows us to keep in touch with loved ones, and
conduct business on a global scale. It brings almost everyone within our
reach and is a great leveller - even Bill Gates gets spam, after all.
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- So as you enter your autumn years, you will probably
look back at this technology revolution and wonder what all the fuss was
about. You will have far more pressing concerns: the new-fangled teleporters
are, frankly, a bit suspicious, and someone at the club mentioned that
those self-driving car-planes have been going wonky and crashing again.
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- ©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/
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