Cellphones and Radiation

Do all cellphones emit the same amount of radiation? Should you be worried about the amount of radiation your cellphone emits? What are the side effects of radiation exposure from cellphones? Is your cellphone dangerous?

If you have ever wondered about any of these questions, you are not alone. If you have never considered any of these questions, maybe you should.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued a report on the dangers of radiation from cellphone use.

More than 4 billion people around the world use cell phones. The technology has only been around for two decades. Scientists do not yet fully understand long-term health risks from cell phone radiation, but recent research has prompted serious concerns about exposure to wireless emissions.

Here are some of the results for people who have used cellphones for 10 years or more:

• A significantly increased risk of developing glioma, a usually malignant brain tumor.


• A significantly increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a type of benign brain tumor.


• A significantly increased risk of benign parotid (salivary) gland tumors.


• The brains of young children absorb more radiation than those of adults rendering them more vulnerable to brain tumors.


• Young children who use cell phones are 80 percent more likely to suffer emotional and hyperactivity problems.


• Exposure to cell phone radiation may affect the immune, endocrine and nervous systems, fetal development and overall metabolism.

Are you paying attention??: Prolonged cellphone use may be dangerous.

Cellphones vary widely in the amount of radiation they emit. How does your phone compare to others? Click this link to find out about your phone.

Cellphones are ranked according to their radiation level. Find out the best and worst cellphones here.

Nothing can be done about the amount of radiation a particular cellphone emits but there are some safety tips to reduce your exposure. Find out what you can do to reduce your exposure here.

I personally have two cellphones that I carry around with me all the time. To be honest, I never even considered looking into the radiation levels before purchasing either one.

The good news is that one of them showed up in the "Best Phones" category and the other one did not show up in the "Worst Phones" category.

I am not sure if when I get a new phone, the radiation emissions level will be my top priority in choosing it; but I can assure you, it will be one of the factors I check out before making another purchase.

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That Is Not Your Baby

Carolyn Savage, 40, is about to give birth, by cesarean section, to a baby boy who is not her son. No - this is not another version of the horror flick Rosemary's Baby - but it does prove Murphy's Law (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong).

Carolyn, due to a mix-up at a fertility clinic, is carrying the embryo from another couple. The mistake was discovered 10 days after the frozen embryo was implanted into her womb. This was in early February 2009. The doctor told them they could abort, but the couple didn't consider that a viable option.

Carolyn and Sean, 39, her husband, have decided to have the baby, and when it is born, turn it over to the real biological parents - Paul and Shannon Morell, of Troy, Michigan.

Embryo mix-ups at fertility clinics are extremely rare. In those few instances, they've degenerated into custody battles, ugly lawsuits and at least one abortion. But not this time. Savage and her husband decided that the right thing — the only thing — to do was to give the baby to the biological parents.

Although the Savages have two sons, and a daughter born with the help of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) doctors have told Carolyn that this must be her final pregnancy.

Shannon and Paul Morell, both 39, have twin girls - also conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

See video clip here

Shannon would not say what clinic she and her husband, Paul used or what legal action they were considering because of the mistake. They have nonetheless hired attorneys who say they are working to make sure the fertility clinic accepts responsibility.

Carolyn Savage is due to give birth to a boy within the next two weeks. When it happens Paul and Shannon Morell will be nearby, waiting to meet their son.

“It’s just the oddest feeling to have somebody else carrying your child because, as a parent, you want to do everything possible to protect your child," Shannon Morell said this morning. "We were totally powerless and out of control. Even though we were grateful, it was just a terrible feeling.”

Although there is no family link between the two couples isn't it strange that Shannon Morell’s maiden name is Savage..... coincidence or fate?

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Mercy Killing and Attempted Suicide

This is the sad story of James and Phyllis Fish. It is a tragic love story about an elderly couple dealing with end-of-life issues and the dilemma of facing a terminal illness. That is not to excuse the actions of James Fish in killing his wife of over 60 years, nor does it absolve him in the botched suicide attempt afterward. It is merely an account of the lives of two individuals who lived, and hoped to die, together. She was 88 years old. He is 90 and recovering in hospital.

"He wanted to end his wife's suffering because of the terminal illness," said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department..... "Then he decided that he did not want to live without her and then he turned the gun on himself."

See video clip here

Fish is now facing a charge of voluntary manslaughter. At 90 years old, Fish could spend the final years of his life behind bars. If convicted, he could face 21 years in prison.

"It's a very tragic, sad case all around, but again, based on circumstances and based on suspect's age, it was decided to book him for voluntary manslaughter as opposed to murder," said Amormino.

Both James and Phyllis were from Indiana. James graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1943. They both served in World War II. Phyllis was a nurse.

When they met and married is uncertain, but by 1952 James had a radiology practice in California. They lived in Santa Barbara County and Salinas until James let his medical license expire in 1979. As a couple they were inseparable.

After retiring the couple took up residence in the Leisure World Retirement Community in Laguna Woods. Phyllis quickly gained a reputation as a tireless community organizer and social butterfly. One neighbor said she was "a 5-foot-tall little fireball." She served on several elected boards, was on the landscaping committee in her neighborhood and loved to golf and garden. She also had a wonderful sense of humor.

James was more introverted he would hang the American flag outside every morning and take it down each evening promptly at 5 p.m. He rarely said much to his neighbors but was devoted to his wife and had a wide range of hobbies. He liked puttering in his woodworking shop.

He cooked fabulous dinners of curried lamb and French seafood stew, and fixed a Sunday brunch of omelets and champagne for his wife each week. They took barge trips down the Seine River in France and cruises through the Panama Canal well into their 80s.

"They had a very, very loving relationship and he loved her to death," said Rita Schoonmaker, 76, a close friend and former neighbor. "They told stories about their life together."

However as time went by their age began to catch up with them and affect their lifestyle. Phyllis suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheel chair. She also began to show signs of dementia.

Meanwhile, James was slowly going blind from macular degeneration. At times, his vision was so bad he didn't even know who was saying hello to him, said his 86-year-old next-door neighbor Paul Jones.

The couple hired a caregiver who would wheel Phyllis outside almost every day for fresh air and sometimes would drive her around the community in a golf cart.

A devastating blow hit the couple when Phyllis was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and James was told she would die by the end of the year.

James began to withdraw from his friends, he seemed depressed about his wife's condition and his own failing eyesight. He did not however show any indication of what he was planning to do.

Authorities allege Fish gave his wife morphine, then tried to shoot her, but the gun didn't fire. A caregiver in the home then took the gun from him and called 911.

As deputies responded to the retirement community, Fish allegedly used another handgun to shoot his wife in the head, killing her.

"Then he decided that he did not want to live without her and then he turned the gun on himself," said Amormino.

James did shoot himself but did not commit suicide. He is hospitalized in critical condition in Mission Viejo Hospital. There is a bullet lodged in his head.

"I'm very, very sad. I'm particularly sad for Jim. I know Phyllis was going to be leaving us soon anyway, but I'm sorry that Jim didn't leave us too," Schoonmaker said. "I think he probably is too."

Prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh agreed that this was indeed a tragic case but said:

"This is a man who lived to be 90 years old without violating the law, without committing a crime," he said. "It's a horribly sad case, but he has to be, to some degree, held accountable for what he did."

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Phillip Arnold Paul Captured

3 days after disappearing from the Spokane County Fair, Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, was captured nearly 200 miles away in Goldendale, in south-central Washington state. The mentally-ill killer had been the target of one the largest manhunts in the state's history. 50 to 60 federal, state and Spokane-area law enforcement personnel had been involved in the search.

Click here for video clip

"He came out of the brush, onto the roadway, as law enforcement officers were going by," Klickitat County Sheriff Rick McComas said. "His intent was to voluntarily give himself up because he knew we were going to find him."

As it turns out, Paul had unwitting help in his plot to escape from the mental hospital where he had been incarcerated on and off for the better part of 20 years. He had obviously been planning his escape for a long time.

47-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul had been telling a friend in Spokane for months that he was going to be released from the Eastern State Hospital. Paul went to the friend's house after slipping away from the hospital staff.

According to Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, the friend gave Paul a guitar and a sleeping bag and drove him out of town, not knowing at the time that Paul was actually running away. Paul also had $50 on him from his Social Security check.

After learning, on Saturday, that Paul was the target of a massive manhunt, the friend went to the authorities and explained to them what had happened. He took them to where he had dropped Paul off, in Goldendale, approximately 180 miles away. Knezovich says authorities used that information to narrow their search.

On Sunday, shortly after 4 pm, with a helicopter overhead and dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officers swarming around Goldendale, Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, gave up. He walked out to the Goldendale-Bickleton road from the brush where he had been hiding, into the arms of the law.

"This has been one of the largest manhunts in this region for many years," Knezovich said. "A great deal of teamwork went into the capture of Mr. Paul."

"There was a lot of fear in the community, people locking their windows," he said. "I want people in Spokane County to know that tonight they can sleep in peace.

Paul was arrested by Spokane County sheriff's detective Roger W. Knight. He was the same detective that had arrested Paul after his first escape attempt in 1991. Following that arrest, Paul knocked Knight unconscious in the jail booking area, separating his shoulder, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault. This time however, there were no further incidents.

McComas said Paul would be taken to Yakima following a brief checkup by medics in Goldendale. He is expected to appear in Yakima County Superior Court on a warrant stemming from the initial murder case before being returned to Eastern State Hospital. It is unlikely that Phillip Arnold Paul will be going on any more field trips.

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Where Is Phillip Arnold Paul?

Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, is 5-foot-8 and weighs 220 pounds. He is a mentally-ill killer - diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized in 1987 - guilty of the murder of a 78-year-old woman in Sunnyside, Wash. He escaped from the Eastern State Hospital while on a field trip to the Spokane County fair.

After discovering Paul was missing from the group of 31 patients and 11 staff members, it took over two hours before the incident was reported to the police.

At the time of his escape, Paul was wearing a red windbreaker, blue jeans, a blue t-shirt and carrying a backpack. Police say Paul is not currently exhibiting violent behavior, but may become dangerous the longer he goes without medication.

“This is very serious,” said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees Eastern. “We need to understand what happened and why.”

This however is not the first time that Paul had escaped from the same hospital. In 1990 he escaped and was captured but not before shattering the shoulder of a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy in the process. He was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.

Spokane County sheriff's officials were told Paul had $50 when he escaped Thursday, Sept. 17th — enough money to buy a bus ticket, said sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan. Authorities at Eastern State Hospital are struggling to answer some very serious questions:

"Why was he allowed to take such a trip?" Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday. "Why did they go to a location that was so heavily populated with families?"

"He is in a bad mental state," his brother, Tom Paul, told The Associated Press. "Why would they load him on a bus and take him to a fair?"

"They believe he was an extreme escape risk and the administration should never have allowed him on the field trip," a statement from the Washington Federation of State Employees said. "The workers have unsuccessfully fought to stop the outings for murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane."

Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, said those questions would be answered in an investigation she has ordered that included both state mental hospitals.

She was peppered with questions at a news conference, but deferred nearly all of them until the 15-day review, which will be in part conducted by the state Department of Corrections, was finished.

State officials have temporarily halted all outings for state patients with criminal histories while they conduct a review.

Phillip Arnold Paul's criminal history began in April 1987. The gasoline-soaked body of Ruth Mottley, 78, is found in a shallow grave near her Lower Yakima Valley home, her throat slit and neck broken. Phillip Arnold Paul, who lived nearby, told deputies “voices” in his head instructed him to “kill the witch on Emerald Road.”

In July 1987 he is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and found not guilty by reason of insanity in Ruth Mottley’s murder and ordered held indefinitely at a “state mental institution for the criminally insane.”

Between the years 1992-2000 Paul began a gradual return to society. He enrolled in classes, held a part-time job and was allowed to spend two weeks at a time at home with his family.

In October 2000 Paul begins to exhibit threatening and delusional behavior. He tells counselors of someone he thinks is a “witch.” He is sent back to Eastern State Hospital for the next 5 years.

In October 2005 he is again conditionally released and begins dating a woman who bore him a son in 2006. He stops taking his medication and is again sent back to hospital for a year. After his release his behavior becomes increasingly defiant and he is finally hospitalized again in Jan. 2009.

On Sept. 17, 2009 Phillip Arnold Paul walks away from his group while attending the Spokane County Interstate Fair. A massive manhunt is still under way to find him.

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UPDATE: Phillip Arnold Paul Captured. Click here for details.