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| By AllTechAdvisor |
The debate may continue for years over whether cell phones cause cancer, but meanwhile, a growing stack of research has uncovered other, more immediate ways your mobile could be a health menace. Read up on these six hazards then hang up when the time is right.
1. Talking (even hands-free) or texting behind the wheel
At least 2,600 traffic deaths and over a half-million accident-related injuries are caused by drivers using their cell phones, according to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. If you think your hands-free device makes talking or sending voice-recognition texts safer, think again. A University of Utah study found that drivers performed equally poorly with hand-held and hands-free phones. The mental effort it takes to hold a conversation with someone who’s not in the car and doesn’t know when to stop talking so you can merge or avoid an unsafe situation is too distracting, the researchers note.
Texting is even worse. When they text, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds long enough for the car to travel the length of a football field, federal safety officials warn. When editors at Car and Driver magazine did their own informal study in 2009, they found that reaction time tripled from a half-second to nearly 1½ seconds while reading or receiving a text. At 35 miles an hour, that’s equal to traveling an extra 45 feet before slamming on the brakes. Their performance while texting was worse while texting than drunk, they discovered after downing vodka and orange juice before getting behind the wheel of a Honda on a closed roadway.
