The Danger of Cell Phones

I recently found a podcast called "Skeptoid," in which skeptic and writer Brian Dunning picks a topic each week and then discusses it from a scientific standpoint in short episodes that run about 10 minutes or so. His topics range from alternative medicine to conspiracy theories to psychics, UFOs and ghost hunters, and from the title of the podcast you can probably guess the conclusions he draws. He also likes to take common misconceptions and lay the facts down; he's kind of like the Bad Astronomer in that way. In general, my opinion of the podcast is A+, great stuff that a lot of people need to hear.

However, in the episode I listened to this morning about cell phones on airplanes, I found points where I disagree. Read the transcript or listen to the episode, then come back.

As Brian points out in the podcast, a cell phone operates on a completely different frequency than any of the navigation or communication equipment, and in no way provides any danger to the operation of the aircraft. I'm not disagreeing with him on this point, not at all. However he mentions "those of us who hope to get this groundless ban dropped," and I'm not sure I'd like to see the ban disappear.

My reason has nothing to do with the science of the phones or anything, but sheer selfish human comfort. I don't want to hear other people on the plane blabbing on their phones from Boston to San Diego. There's a limit to the number of one-sided phone conversations you can hear without going crazy, and in the confined and inescapable space of a commercial aircraft that limit can be exceeded extremely quickly. It's true they may not pose a danger to the aircraft itself, but there is a risk to the blithering idiots who feel that everyone around them should know what is important to them. Hang up the phone, read a book or magazine, listen to you iPod, and wait until you get on the ground to call your coworkers and loved ones.

Which brings up another interesting point: why are mp3 players, laptop computers, PDAs, CD and DVD players, and anything else with a battery not permitted below an altitude of 10,000 feet? If your phone doesn't interfere with the operation of the plane, it's pretty safe to say that the small battery of your iPod doesn't either, especially since the device doesn't actually transmit anything in the first place.

I have an opinion on this, and the reason is indeed derived from passenger safety. Mind you this is not verified by any sources but it makes sense to me. Think about a plane flight. The times in the flight with the greatest risk for an accident are takeoff and landing, when the plane is nearest the ground. Also, accidents here have a chance for a fatality rate of less than 100% (I mean face it; if the plane develops a fatal flaw and drops 35,000 feet the safety briefing won't help anyone). So my theory is that in case something goes wrong the crew will need to give instructions, and they need everyone to be listening. I developed this theory while on a JetBlue flight; JetBlue has the nice feature of an individual TV and separate head phone jack for each seat. They make you turn off mp3 players for takeoff but if you're watching TV they can override the audio with the intercom.

So while the gadget ban may not be rooted in science, it is rooted in common courtesy and dissemination of information. My thoughts.