But in recent years, with the rise in cancer cases - one of the leading causes of death worldwide - concerns have grown over the possible links between our inseparable cells and the risk of developing malignant tumors.
"In the last decades a large number of studies have been carried out to analyze whether radiofrequency (RF) waves pose a risk to our health," says Emilie van Deventer, director of the Radiation Program of the Department of Public Health, Environment And Health Determinants of the World Health Organization (WHO).
"As more RF waves have appeared in our lives, the question to be resolved is whether there is any adverse effect from cell phones, base stations (telephony towers) or Wi-Fi connections at environmental exposure levels."
Van Deventer says research also covers fertility and hypersensitivity problems. But so far the answer has been ambiguous.
"Potential risks"
RF waves from cell phones are "a form of electromagnetic energy that lies between FM radio waves and microwaves, and they are a form of non-ionizing radiation," the American Cancer Society (ACS) for its acronym in English).
According to this organism, these waves "are not strong enough to cause cancer" because, unlike the more powerful types of radiation (ionizing), they can not break the chemical bonds in the DNA.
That would only occur, they explain, at "very high" levels, such as microwave ovens, they say.
However, the issue is being reviewed. In fact, Emilie van Deventer - the author of about 50 scientific publications on non-ionizing radiation - says that WHO is investigating it again.
While there is a lack of evidence, it is also true that there are "potential long-term risks" especially related to tumors in the head and neck, says the specialist.
The ACS also addresses this issue: "The closer the (cell) antenna to the head (the user), the greater the exposure of the person to the RF energy is expected to be," he warns.
The specific absorption rate and other indications
It is then that the tissues of our organism can "absorb that energy", something that experts in the matter call "specific absorption rate" (or SAR).
Each cell phone has its SAR level which can often be found on the manufacturer's website.
In the United States, the maximum allowed level is 1.6 watts per kilogram (W / kg).
However, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warns that "comparing SAR values between phones can cause confusion", because such information is based on the operation of the device at its highest power, and Not at the level of exposure in normal use.
But there are also studies linking cell phone use with skin cancer and testicular cancer.
To analyze this, researchers use two types of studies: laboratory (with animals) and people (comparing cancer rates).
The problem, Van Deventer explains, is that "many types of cancer are not detectable until many years after the interactions that caused the tumor, and as the use of cell phones did not become popular until the 90s, epidemiological studies can only evaluate those Cancers that became evident in shorter periods of time. "
So far, the largest study ever conducted is Interphone, a large-scale research that was coordinated by WHO through its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and Which analyzed data from 13 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Canada.