The Diary
of
Anne Ku

12 December 2000 Tuesday

NEGATIVE MOBILITY

MY compact little Ericsson T-28 World is so light that I hardly notice its presence. It has changed my life in that I no longer worry about being late for appointments.

After the horrible experience of being late and not being able to find a fault-free and queue-free public telephone in Bayswater, I could not imagine going through another multilateral dinner date.

Of course, armed with a mobile phone I can no longer blame the tube, the train, or the bus. Having the phone ON makes me anticipate calls. Having it OFF makes me wonder if my voicemail will ring me at the weirdest hours. I'm still not sure how long the battery lasts.

Perhaps the one thing that I did not foresee was the level of radiation mobile phones emit. I've read about the controversies, but in the end, I joined the mobile generation and purchased the cheapest and latest phone around. It was so popular that I had to place an order weeks in advance.

Ericsson mobile phones emit the most radiation, said the headline of a short article in the free daily London underground newspaper METRO (4 Dec 2000). The Ericsson T28 topped the list with 1.27 watts per kilogram. Next were Siemens C35i and the Nokia 6210 at 1.19 watts/kilogram radiation absorbed by the body. Samsung SGH 2400 at 1.17. Motorola V3690 at 1.13.

Will I get radiation if I don't use it? Will my body absorb radiation if the phone is ON and in my pocket? Being mobile could possibly mean being radiated.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Related diary entries:

Mobile Phone Culture