How many hours per day do you hold your smartphone in your hand or lean it closely to your ear? Maybe you make some phone calls, check a couple of messages or you just browse through your social media pages - and how many times do you do that? While being an avid smartphone user, did you ever realize it could cause you some serious pain?

Did you know that dumping electrical equipment at landfill can (and will) contaminate the surrounding land and the groundwater underneath with polychlorinated biphenyls, which are linked to thyroid, liver, and various immune diseases? To many, such piece of information doesn't count for much, because 'that landfill is far away from me, it doesn't affect me directly'. But harmful substances can enter your body just by holding an electronic device in your hand. And that includes mobile phones.

Due to frequent daily use of mobile phones, the Danish Consumer Council THINK Chemicals decided to check, if your device is secretly exposing you to endocrine disrupting or cancer-causing substances. So what was the result?

Christel Søgaard Kirkeby, project manager in The Danish Consumer Council THINK Chemicals, said: "We have been eager to see the results of the test, and it is better than expected. It is reassuring that all the 10 examined products do well in our test, when you consider the vast number of people who are in close contact with their mobile phones every day. However, the test does reveal small quantities of unwanted substances, and we urge the manufacturers to phase them out."

The test, which included 10 different brands of phones, like iPhone, Samsung and HTC, revealed small quantities of substances suspected to be hormone disrupting (flame retardants, phthalates and Bisphenol A). Nothing to be alaramed about. However, testing headphones earlier this year proved that 5 out of 16 headphones do contain unwanted chemicals, so better watch out there and use earplugs that are included with your original mobile phone package.

According to The Danish Consumer Council THINK Chemicals, the winner of the test was Samsung Galaxy S6, which did not contain any traces of unwanted chemicals at all.

Sept. 9, 2015 Living photo: Profimedia

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