Love your iPhone? Keep your phone love affair healthy by texting more and talking less. That’s one of the tips from eco-nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which today released an easy-to-navigate online consumer guide to cell phone radiation.

The guide isn’t about getting rid of cell phones altogether — just picking the better ones and using them more safely. “We at Environmental Working Group are still using our cell phones,” according to the guide, “but we also believe that until scientists know much more about cell phone radiation, it’s smart for consumers to buy phones with the lowest emissions.”

To that end, you can check out the best and worst 10 phones and PDAs on EWG’s handy list — or search to find out the radiation level of your current phone. Don’t know what model your phone is? Try popping out the battery; model numbers are often listed under there. I’ve got an LG LX125 — which scores in the middle range, as do iPhones.

EWG also offers 8 tips to help you reduce cell phone radiation exposure, from getting a headset to texting more than talking.

Why’s cell phone radiation something you should be concerned about? Recent studies have linked this radiation to brain cancer, salivary gland tumors, migraines, vertigo, and behavioral problems. Get more details on these findings by reading EWG’s report, Cell Phone Radiation: Science Review on Cancer Risks and Children’s Health (PDF) — and send a letter to the FCC and the FDA to make more cell phone radiation research a priority.

Update: L.A. Times’ David Lazarus reports on a new study that links cell phones and brain tumors: “One conclusion consistent with nearly every report is that there is indeed a higher risk of brain tumors for people who use a cellphone for at least 10 years and who typically hold the device on the same side of their head.”

Photo by Billie Hara

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