MobilePhone30 – Why is it criticized?

Since last many years, identifying and proving new substances and proselytizing them as homeopathic medicines have become a fad. We have seen many medicines like the Berlin wall, Albatross, Crocodile, Eagle, Tyrannosaurus Fossil, etc. emerge as the leaders in this. The latest entrant to this list, which also has arrived in the Indian Subcontinent for the first time is the Mobile Phone. The company manufacturing it in India could procure a back potency from its original manufacturer and they now offer here a variety of potencies ranging from 6c to 30C, on request.

All these being said, let us have a background check of how this medicine was prepared and how the proving was done.

Let us quote from the literature provided by the manufacturer/prover:

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Why this proving?

The proving was started in January 1999. For well over the past year or two it was becoming increasingly obvious from press and TV coverage that concerns were growing over the possible dangers of using mobile phones, whilst the mobile phone companies and others with vested interests all assured us that they were totally safe. Suddenly, nobody could live without a mobile phone! It became the essential item for all teenagers, and top of the list for Christmas presents that year. Go to any public place – shops, buses, trains, even the refuge of the local pub – and sure enough, those conversations would spring up from every corner. Suddenly all our private business became public, and the rest of us became expert eavesdroppers. Meanwhile, it seemed like every day a new article appeared in newspapers and magazines, or a television programme, warning of the dangers, and describing the ever-increasing range of symptoms experienced by users. It seemed an obvious choice for a proving.

The Substance – Toxicity & Resources

Research is currently being conducted around the world on the effects of radiation emission from mobile phones on the brain and is being widely reported in the Media. At present one of the main causes for alarm are the effects of microwave fields on the blood-brain safety barrier, an opening of which may allow proteins and toxins to enter the brain. Some researchers warn that low-level radiation from mobile phone handsets heats the brain, causing headaches, memory loss, and dizziness. Concerned organizations such as Waveguide and Powerwatch can be reached via the Internet:-

Pharmaceutical Preparation:

We asked two moderate users of mobile phones for their assistance. They were each given a 4gm bottle of lactose which was attached to the mobile phone and the number and length of calls were logged. They were also requested to avoid leaving the phone and attached lactose close to any other interference such as TV’s or microwave ovens, etc.

Phone 1:
Model: Eriksson GH337
Digital
Server: Cellnet
Total call exposure time: 5 minutes

Phone 2:
Model: Nokia 5.1
Digital
Server: Orange
Total call exposure time: 2 hours, 16 minutes

Equal quantities of the two exposed lactose powders were then mixed together and triturated to a 3c in accordance with footnotes to paragraph 270 of the 6th edition of the Organon. Potentisation in liquid form was continued up to a 30c.

SOURCE: The South Downs College of Homeopathy

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Let us summarize this into few points.

1. The proving was started in January 1999.
2. The potential and the possible dangers of using mobile phones.
3. The ever-increasing range of symptoms experienced by Mobile phone users.
4. The effects of radiation emission from mobile phones on the brain
5. The effects of microwave fields on the blood-brain safety barrier
6. Two moderate users of mobile phones were selected and they were each given a 4gm bottle of lactose which was attached to the mobile phone.
7. The mobile model – Eriksson GH337 – received 5 minutes call
8. The mobile model – Nokia 5.1 – received 2 hours and 16 minutes.
9. Equal quantities of the two exposed lactose powders were then mixed together and triturated to 3c
10. Potentisation in liquid form was continued up to 30c

The effect of Radio-phobia?

Ever since the advent of mobile phones, the fear surrounding the radiations emitted by a cellphone was always a matter of concern. The mere presence of the word RADIATION made people think of the gamma radiations and nuclear weapons. The people started hypothesizing that since nuclear radiations are harmful, mobile radiations too are harmful. They failed to learn about the ionizing property of the radiations which depend upon the frequency and wavelength of the waves and which makes these radiations different from each other. This fear of radiations is still a major reason for all the people going behind opportunistic devices and products that claim to protect from mobile radiations. The present homeopathic product too is not different and rather betoken the ignorance of the fraternity regarding the real science behind electromagnetic fields and its varying properties.

Now, if we look back into the method of preparation of this medicine, it is clearly mentioned that “a 4gm of lactose powder was attached to two mobile phones and calls were allowed to them. On one mobile, a call of about 5 minutes was made and to the other, 2 hours and 16 minutes. Later, both these powders were mixed together in equal quantities.”

The mobile phone radiation belongs to radio frequency wave of the frequency range. The frequency of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation ranges from 30 kilohertz (30 kHz, or 30,000 Hz) to 300 gigahertz (300 GHz, or 300 billion Hz), and mobile phone works in the 2.5GHz microwave range. The human body absorbs energy from devices that emit radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation. The dose of the absorbed energy is estimated using a measure called the specific absorption rate (SAR), which is expressed in watts per kilogram of body weight. Exposure to ionizing radiation, such as from x-rays, is known to increase the risk of cancer. However, although many studies have examined the potential health effects of non-ionizing radiation from radar, microwave ovens, cell phones, and other sources, there is currently no consistent evidence that non-ionizing radiation increases cancer risk in humans. The only consistently recognized biological effect of radiofrequency radiation in humans is heating. The ability of microwave ovens to heat food is one example of this effect of radiofrequency radiation. Radiofrequency exposure from cell phone use does cause heating to the area of the body where a cell phone or other device is held (e.g., the ear and head). However, it is not sufficient to measurably increase body temperature. There are no other clearly established effects on the human body from radiofrequency radiation. (SOURCE: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet)

https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/index.cfm

At this point, we need to raise a few questions:

• What are the possible changes that might have occurred in the lactose powder in this short period of mobile phone radiation exposure?
• Is it due to the heating effect of the radio waves or due to the ionizing property of an EM radiation?
• Is the short period of exposure enough to bring that change?
• What is the difference if lactose was exposed to radiation in a microwave oven or to simply visible sunlight?

Here it is surprising to see that, the manufacturers of the medicines or its ideators have never come up with a hypothesis to explain its possible mechanisms. Yet they have decided that, the short period of exposure to RF waves have resulted in some change in the attached bottle of lactose powder and is capable of carrying those properties even in the diluted/Potentised forms to intervene in biological interactions in a normal human body to produce a myriad of symptomatology as portrayed by the lengthy proving literature.

The reasons for objection are as follows:

1. Mobile phone radiation is repeatedly proven safe for human use.
2. Mobile phone radiation is a radio frequency wave, which is a non-ionizing radiation.
3. A non-ionizing radiation is incapable of producing molecular changes in a substance – organic or inorganic.
4. The only biological effect so far detected for an RF wave is heating property – which could be seen utilized in a microwave oven for cooking. This heating property is the reason for the warnings given for a more responsible use of a mobile phone. Heat absorbed on contact area can result in cellular damage on prolonged exposure, which is predetermined using the SAR value.
5. Lactose (C12H22O11) is a disaccharide (Galactose + Glucose) and if the heat should bring a non-enzymatic oxidative change in it, the temperature should rise up to 200-degree Celsius (Water boils at 100 degrees Celcius), which will not happen with the range of frequency to which the mobile phone radiations belongs to, and with a very short exposure time.

Nevertheless, medicines and their imaginative provings like these make the already existing materia medica questionable and doubtful. Here you have ‘seen clearly’ how ‘deeply’ a non-ionizing radiation is affecting a bottle of sugar of milk and is ‘capable of producing changes’ in a human body, even in the diluted/Potentised form. It is a bit surprising and outrageous to believe that would happen at least by a one billionth of a chance..!

So, by knowing all these, we are forced to comment that, the whole idea of a medicine like this from Mobile phone lacks scientific validity and compliance, which makes it a matter of ridicule. We request the homeopathic fraternity to be hawk-eyed towards these type of pseudoscientific products and occult ideas impinging Homeopathy, which is already incapacitated by its lack of scientific roots.

Dr. Arif Hussain Theruvath
ICSH – Publications