FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE

MAY 2013

COURSE CODE OUMH2203

COURSE TITLE ENGLISH FOR WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

STUDENT NUMBER I/C NUMBER PHONE NUMBER EMAIL

: : : :

7601161258281001 760116125828 012-8017487 dyan_comel@oum.edu.my

LEARNING CENTER

MALAYSIA OPEN UNIVERSITY SABAH

REPORT ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MOBILE PHONES PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

PREPARED FOR, MR THOMAS TAN, DIRECTOR OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MOBILE PHONES, KOTA KINABALU, SABAH.

BY, HANIM MUDI, MANAGER OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MOBILE PHONES, KOTA KINABALU, SABAH.

12 TH JULY 2013

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Table of Contents NO CONTENT PAGES

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TITLE PAGE

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INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purpose of report 1.2 Proposal for actions 1 3

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BODY 2.1 Problems 2.2 Need for changes 6 9

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CONCLUSION 3.1 Evaluation 3.2 Recommendation 12 14

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REFERENCES

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1. 1.1

INTRODUCTION PURPOSE OF REPORT I made this report based on the observation and analysis made by me, thus it was my duty

as the Occupational Safety and Health Manager of the mobile phone. From my observation and analysis, I observed and analyzed some of the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile phones by doing some researches. Therefore, through this report hopefully the managing director will take actions and simply make a decision as recommendations were given. As we knew, mobile phones are rapidly developing these days. As the world came to new technology generation, we cannot lived without mobile phones. As the technology developed, the function of mobile phone had become unpredictability powerful. With the access to internet, sending emails, reading news and playing on line games on mobile phone was becoming a new fashion. However, along with the technological break, rises the discussion about the problems related to the use of mobile phone. The observation and analysis done by me, it concerned with new societal problems arising from the integration of mobile phone communication into daily social life and medical problems. The principal focus was negative impacts of mobile phones. In almost every people studied, mobile phones had created new problems for social order. Although mobile phones were valued and powerful tool for communication and for the maintenance of social relationships, there were aspects of mobile phones which were problematic, and many societies were discussing problems that had arisen due to the power and ubiquity of mobile phones. The ability to not only transmit voice, but also to collect and record visual images had created new challenges for societies in terms of new conflicts between personal freedom of expression and rights to privacy. The ability to communicate despite separation in time and space provided new and exciting possibilities for communication with others.

This new availability was considered to be very positive, but at the same time created conflicts. New conflicts and challenges were not only relevant to mobile phones but to other new forms of new communication technology. Mobile phone technology facilitates both separation of people (in that people can be dispersed and still be available) and facilitates linking people together (in that it is easier to communicate with people previously unavailable). Members of society were experiencing great challenges in managing simultaneous contextsthe face-to-face and the digitally mediated, which may had very different types of participants and required quite different forms of talk, and different degrees of responsibility and responsiveness. Despite from that, the mobile phones cause medical problem. According to a survey, one doctor said that someone who used mobile phones all day was more higher probability to have diseases such as cancer than others who did not use phones not very much. The most serious problems were mobile phones' addictiveness. It causes a lot to especially young people. Addictiveness disturbed young people because they were hard to concentrate on their own studies. Thus, there were both sides of using mobile phones. Of course mobile phones brought some problems, but we can reduce using mobile phones to decline problems and it was expected that more advanced technological developments will appear soon. Nothing can be overused without side effects. The contribution of the mobile phone to our modern society was prominent and people's dependence on it was irreversible, although it had a number of problems that should be well handled.

1.2

PROPOSAL FOR ACTIONS

Through the observation and analysis made, I hereby proposed the actions that could be considered and to be taken into actions. Firstly, almost everything that changed our lifestyle a lot will also cause some social problems. Mobile phones were not out of expectation. Speaking loudly on the phone in public areas, such as schools, libraries and hospitals appeared to be very impolite and offensive. What was worse , some students utilize their mobile phones as an effective cheating tools in examinations in which they can sent and received answers by texting each other. Nevertheless, it was not impossible to solved these problems, as long as some regulations and rules can be effectively implemented. By using mobile phone had caused some serious social troubles too, such as traffic accident. Even though the blue tooth earphone enables people to talk on mobile while driving a car, there is not yet a device allowing people to read or even send texts and emails while running a vehicle. Sadly, for various reasons, some people tend to take the chances and put their own and other peoples lives in danger. On the other hand, to prevent people from doing such thing, rules and regulations should be implemented through its driver education initiatives, they should advised drivers that: Safety is the most important call you can make when driving. We have made it clear that although a hands-free mobile can reduce the physical effort to make or receive a call, drivers should avoid making calls in heavy traffic or bad weather conditions and they should not engage in distracting, complex or emotional conversations. Secondly, It was also worth mentioning that some harmful effects on our health are lethal. It has been proved that over using of the electronic devices including mobile phones could lead to higher possibility of suffering hearing loss, eyes problems, inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs, insomnia and even cancer. 3

Nevertheless, there were a fair amount of research suggest that obsession with mobile phone used could lead to some serious and even irreversible health problems. To start with, staring at the small screen of mobile phone for long hours, no matter it was reading news or watching movies, could lead to serious eye diseases. While inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs had been proved to have a tight relationship with the typing on mobile phone. At the same time, there was a growing number of people suffering from insomnia after they developed the habit of reading tweets in bed after turning off the lights. Dont even mention the tumors caused by the radiation from mobile phones. So, below were the steps on how to take precautions when using the mobile phones: Stay still when using a cell phone. If you keep moving around with it, more radiation is emitted because the phone needs to keep track of you. This covers walking and being inside a vehicle; as you move, the phone continues to scan to keep up with the changes in position. Turn the cell phone off when not in use. A cell phone that is in standby mode is still emitting radiation. When it is off, this ceases. Do not carry the cell phone next to your body; instead, keep it in a bag. This is especially important if you have become used to wearing it in a pocket next to your groin; research has shown that men wearing cell phones next to their groin have up to a 30 percent reduction in sperm count. Keep it away from all vital organs for example heart, liver and so on. Look for products designed to shield you as a cell phone user. There are several devices on the market offering their own claims. Read the information accompanying the products and decide what is likely to work best for you. Some of the possibilities include: A cell phone EMF protective device. These are small chips or button that are adhered to the phone reducing the impact of the transmitter signals. A screen type shield. This is a screen placed over the phone's earpiece. Purchase a cell phone that rates as low as possible on the scale of radiation emissions. Some cell phones are definitely better than others on this scale, so as a consumer, vote with your purchase power and let cell phone companies know that less radiation is what consumers demand. 4

The less fancy your phone, the less energy it needs to run, and the less radiation you'll be exposed to. It may sound disappointing if you're used to play on your phone a lot but that's what laptops, portable game consoles, and I Pads are for! The mobile phone had become a dispensable multifunctional tools in people's daily life. Not only used for communication, but it also functions as an Internet browser, a music player , a personal organizer and so forth. Therefore, I hope that, my proposed plan of action could be considered as a way of solving these problems. By the way, it depends on our company to proceed either to take it as an action in solving these problems.

2. 2.1

BODY: PRESENT SITUATION PROBLEMS Based on the observation and analysis made, several problems emerged about the safety

and health of using mobile phones. People whom been questions through these observation and analysis blatantly ignoring the safety and health about using mobile phones. I believed that some of the rules and regulations and also the steps should be implemented among them. Below is the statistic stating percent of mobile phones users according to age. MOBILE PHONES USERS AMONG PEOPLE OF SABAH BY AGE GROUP

2013

2012

2011

Figure 1 Based on the above percent, the numbers of teenagers were more than the adult. Since 2011 the users increased each year. These impact the usage among younger people where they used more mobile phones and exposed to the problems of sociality. Based on the percent above, the 16 to 30 years people were exposed to the social problems more longer than the others. As mentioned earlier, younger people were lack in disciplines attitudes . Usually they will speak loudly on the phone in public areas, such as schools, libraries and hospitals appeared to be very impolite and offensive. What was worse , some students utilize their mobile phones as an effective cheating tools in examinations in which they can sent and received answers by texting each other. 6

PERCENT OF MOBILE USERS THAT HAVE EXPERIENCE NEGATIVE ASPECTS

(Note : indicators for ages 16 to 40 years old)

Figure 2 Based on the percent above people of ages 16 to 40 experienced negative aspects by using mobile phone. They had caused some serious social troubles too, such as received spam, talking while driving, texting while driving, bullied or harassed , received and sending text. Even though the blue tooth earphone enables people to talk on mobile while driving a car, there was not yet a device allowing people to read or even sent texts and emails while running a vehicle. Sadly, for various reasons, some people tend to take the chances and put their own and other peoples lives in danger. Through mobile phones people can bullied or been bullied by other people through sending text or even a phone call. Despite from the above matter, the problems in health occurred. There was also worth mentioning that some harmful effects on our health were lethal. It had been proved that over using of the electronic devices including mobile phones could lead to higher possibility of suffering hearing loss, eyes problems, inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs, insomnia and even cancer. Below is the percent of people of Sabah who used their mobile phones for their daily needs.

How people of Sabah used their mobile phones for their daily needs

Figure 3 Based on the above figure 3, we can see that majority people of Sabah will used the above activities in their daily needs. Too much usage on the mobile phones could affect their health. In May 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified RF radiation as possibly carcinogenic for humans, based on an increased risk for a brain cancer. The release of this WHO statement prompted many people to call for a 'precautionary approach' to mobile phone used. Research was ongoing. The most widely spread disadvantage though the most unseen, was the addictive relation developed between a mobile phone and its user. Psychiatrists and sociologists believed that mobile phone addiction was becoming one of the biggest non-drug addictions in the 21st century. Along with the age dropped of the mobile phone users and the ease of prepaid method provide by the system operators, most teenagers now own their own mobile phone and network service. Teenagers were engaged on their mobile phones all the time, no matter on phone calls, using SMS text messages, personalizing the mobile phones with ringtones and pictures.

I hereby, categorized the problems reported by users of mobile phones into four dimensions, as follows:

health considerations among people mobile phone addiction

2.2

NEED FOR CHANGES

In order to be productive, health and safety must be a priority. The overall plan and execution of health and safety measure ensure that the mobile phones were save for every people. The best way to handle any bad situation was to properly evaluate the steps and think about scenarios ahead of time. In order to improve health and safety in using mobile phones, people should be emphasis in the rules and regulations in their daily life. Therefore, I suggested that changes should be made for the benefit of the people who were using mobile phones. It depends on them to use it systematically as rules and regulations came first to make sure that the mobile phones were wisely used. I suggest that younger people who were lack in disciplines attitudes should be taught in their daily life about it. Usually they will speak loudly on the phone in public areas, such as schools, libraries and hospitals appeared to be very impolite and offensive. So, as a suggestion, they should be warned and told not to do such things. Adult who came across that problem should immediately said that was wrong. Beside that in school, moral and behavior should be implemented in every subject they learnt. 9

What was worse , some students utilized their mobile phones as an effective cheating tools in examinations in which they can sent and received answers by texting each other. Therefore, school should take action as students were prohibited to have mobile phones in school. School should made spot check every day to make sure students did not brought their mobile phones to school. Consequently, the mobile phone industry took the issue of safe mobile phone used while driving very seriously. So I suggested we did the same thing. That was through its driver education initiatives. Advised drivers that: Safety is the most important call you can make when driving. We had made it cleared that although a hands-free mobile can reduced the physical effort to make or receive a call, drivers should avoid making calls in heavy traffic or bad weather conditions and they should not engage in distracting, complex or emotional conversations. I believe that by adhering to existing laws and some simple commonsense practices, drivers can make safe used of mobile phones while enjoying the substantial public safety and personal security benefits they also provided. Mobile phones were only one of the many distractions faced by drivers and all potential distractions must be considered and mobile phones should not be singled out. While technology can helped to address physical and visual demands of mobile phone used in vehicles, education is required to remind drivers not to be distracted by mobile phones while driving and reinforced the current ban on hand-held use. Therefore, the most useful action governments can take was to educate drivers about the appropriate and safe use of wireless communications products in vehicles. The majority of reports that had studied the issue of mobile phone used while driving had recommended additional data collection and had suggested education over legislation as the key to increasing the responsible used of mobile phones. As for health considerations among people there was also worth mentioning that some harmful effects on our health were lethal. It had been proved that over using of the electronic devices including mobile phones could led to higher possibility of suffering hearing loss, eyes problems, inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs and insomnia. 10

As a suggestion, people should take action to prevent such harmful effects in their life. Evidence so far suggests that mobile phones arent harmful, but long-term risks and consequences were yet to be clarified. If they were concerned, they can reduced their exposure to RF radiation by: Choosing a mobile phone model that had a low specific absorption rate (SAR), which refers to the amount of RF radiation absorbed by body tissues. Using a landline phone if one was available. Keeping your mobile phone calls short. Using a hands-free kit. Not carrying your mobile phone close to your body when it was switched on.

Psychiatrists and sociologists believed that mobile phone addiction was becoming one of the biggest non-drug addictions in the 21st century. Along with the age dropped of the mobile phone users and the ease of prepaid method provide by the system operators, most teenagers now own their own mobile phone and network service. Teenagers were engaged on their mobile phones all the time, no matter on phone calls, using SMS text messages, personalizing the mobile phones with ringtones and pictures. As a result, they were addicted to use mobile phones throughout their daily needs. So, to make sure they were not addicted they should keep busy! Try taking up a new hobby like knitting, sewing or playing an instrument. Spend more time doing things that need to be finished, whether it's chores or parents wanting a family day or time together. Besides that, think of why they like their cell phone so much. Then, think of the thing they liked on their phone that addicted them to it and imagine it got deleted off their phone. If it was their phone altogether, think of it as a phone for emergencies only. Besides that, they can limited their calls or tell their friends about their addiction so that they can make the move on cutting the conversation off.

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3.

CONCLUSION

3.1

EVALUATION Mobile phones were playing a vital role in transforming the human life into luxurious

way. Before 19's there were hardly few mobiles phones, however rarely used only by the business magnet for business communication. Moreover in olden days communication system was very slow, it would had taken months to send a message to their relatives or friends. Consequently, the system was replaced by fastest mode of communication that was mobile phones; it had eased the way of communication. Here, they can directly speak to the concerned person and even can sent a message at the earliest. Furthermore, it had opened the boundaries of a country to make business very easier way. Now they can directly communicated with business users to get the detailed description of requirements for their business to get succeed. In addition to this mobile phones were simply known as 'ALL IN ONE', where they can listened to the music, watched movies , captured happy feets and moreover, they can used it for mobile banking. For instance, they can transfer money to other accounts, recharged mobile phones, pay electricity bills and so forth. On other hand to advantages, there were many disadvantages which were directly influencing the human lives. If we consider in terms of medical problems, it causes hearing loss, eyes problems, inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs and insomnia. For example, if a person was constantly speaking on phone for hours, it may damage his tiny nerves which were very near to the ears and make him fall sick causing to the brain tumor. There are a fair amount of research suggested that obsession with mobile phone used could led to some serious and even irreversible health problems. To start with, staring at the small screen of cell phone for long hours, no matter it is reading news or watching movies, could led to serious eye diseases. While inflammation and degeneration of joints around thumbs had been proved to have a tight relationship with the typing on mobile phone.

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At the same time, there was a growing number of people suffering from insomnia after they developed the habit of reading tweets in bed after turning off the lights. Dont even mention the tumors caused by the radiation from mobile phone. Coming to the social problems, there was no restrictions to captures photos through mobile phone cameras and edit them to the worst and publish them in social networking sites. So these sort of problems were getting more now a days, as technology was advancing along with that vulgarity was also moving parallel with it causing social problems to the women throughout the world. Therefore, mobile phones were a great invention and almost a perfect technological breakthrough. Nevertheless, do not be fooled by these small and beautiful inventions because they carry danger within them. Now that they know most of the disadvantages of mobile phones. The big bulky price tag and losing their privacy were just two of the many disadvantages it carries. But still, mobile phones were something we cannot live without, and I bet you do too. In conclusion, I would like to state as disadvantages are more compare to advantages. However, it was in the hands of individuals to use the latest technologies in the proper manner. There were lots of significant thing that can be performed using the Moden technologies which can harm human lives and make lifes very much uncomfortable.

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3.2

RECOMMENDATION

Although current evidence suggested mobile phones were not safe to use, there were some recommendations to help lower any potential long-term risks. Using a phone while driving was currently the greatest risk to their health. They can lower exposure to radio waves in the following ways: Only make short calls on their mobile phone, and do not use it more than necessary. Children should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and keep all calls short. Find out the specific absorption rate (SAR) of a mobile phone before they bought it. This is how much radio wave energy absorbed into the body from the mobile phone. SAR can vary between different types of phones. Mobile phone retailers have a responsibility to make this information available to them before they buy. Keep their mobile phone away from their body when it is in standby mode. Only use their phone when the reception is strong: this is often indicated by bars of energy on their phone screen. Weak reception causes the phone to use more energy to communicate with the base station. Use a mobile phone that has an external antenna. This keeps the radio waves as far away from their head as possible. I hope that, my recommended actions could be considered as a way of solving these problems. By the way, it depends on themselves to proceed either to take it as an action in solving these problems.

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REFERENCES Agar, Jon. 2003. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile phone. Cambridge; Icon Books. Aronson, Sidney H. 1971. The Sociology of the Telephone. International Journal of Comparative Sociology 12:153-167. Department of California Highway Patrol, Office of Research and Planning. Effects of Cellular Telephone Use on Driver Behaviour. 1997. Kasesniemi, Eija-Liisa. 2003. Mobile Messages;Young People and a New

Communication Culture. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press. Katz, James E., and Mark Aakhus, eds. 2002. Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goodman M, Bents FD, Tijerina L, et al. An Investigation of the Safety Implications of Wireless Communications in Vehicles. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 1997 DOT HS 808-635. Violanti J. Cellular Phones and Traffic Accidents: An Epidemiological Approach.

Journal of Society of Public Health November 1997. Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Safety, Wisconsin, Distracted Driver Task Force: Summary of Proceedings 1996.

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WEBSITES http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/745023 http://www.saferphonezone.com/worldwide-cell-phone-safety-recommendations-and-policies/ http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/cell-phone-radiation/ http://www.amta.org.au/default.asp http://www.aca.gov.au/aca_home/licensing/radcomm/space_systems/papers/jamsrep.pdf

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