Questão 699756

Mobile risk

1 Due to the rapid increase and development of

mobile communication devices and other items of electronic

equipment that emit non-ionizing radiation, there is general

4 public awareness of the potential health effects of

electromagnetic fields.

Although various authorities, such as the World

7 Health Organization (WHO), state that no major public

health risks have emerged from several decades of research,

uncertainties remain. The potential health effects of exposure

10 to electromagnetic fields continue to await scientific

clarification. For instance, WHO has established an

international project to assess the scientific evidence for the

13 possible health effects of electromagnetic fields. It is

expected that all the health risk assessments will be

completed by the end of 2010.

16 It may be argued that economic and cultural

globalisation has given rise to a collective sensitivity to risk

(Jaeger et al., 2001) such that different kinds of claims are

19 admitted to the political agenda. This sensitivity is a

generalized awareness of a growing capacity to interfere with

nature and an awareness of the fallibility of science, the

22 vulnerability of the human body and the fragility of the

biosphere. It is accompanied by a search for epistemological

security along with a decrease in public trust in experts,

25 science and technology. Various factors point to this:

scientific controversies, for example, are laid bare in the

media, those in authority espouse precautionary politics and

28 the layperson’s interpretation of risks in relation to moral

justice leads to political and judicial struggles.

Internet: <www.acs.org.aujrpit> (adapted).

According to the text,

economic and cultural globalisation has given way to a rapid increase and development of mobile communication devices.