We've all heard it before: mobilel phones emit radiation, and those long-term health effects are a little scary.

In 2009, two groups of researchers looked at 25 studies of mobile phone users and found a 50 to 90 percent increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma brain tumors. Other studies have linked mobile phone use to migraines and vertigo, as well as behavioral problems in children. And very high cell phone use has been linked to tumors on the salivary gland.

Minimizing risk is as simple as not using a mobile phone, but that's impractical for most people. So what can you do? Buy a mobile phone that is a low emitter! Consumers have the buying power, and now there's an easy way to find out which end of the emissions scale your mobile phone (or the one you've been coveting) sits on.

The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Cell Phone Radiation List and Database lists phone models and their radiation levels, starting with the lowest radiation-emitting phones to those that emit the most radiation. (There are, however, a fair number of phone models for which the radiation emissions are not available.)

So which mobile phone emits the least amount of radiation? That honor goes to Sanyo's Katana II (available from Kajeet), which emits a mere 0.22 to 0.55 W/kg. In close second is the Samsung Rugby (SGH-a873) available from AT&T, which emits 0.22 to 0.57 W/kg, followed by Blackberry Storm 9530 carried by Verizon with emissions of 0.57 W/kg.

In contrast, the worst culprits emit as much as 1.55 to 1.58 W/kg--three times that of the phones at the top of the list. The 10 phones with highest radiation emissions include:

  * Motorola i335 from Sprint

  * Blackberry 8703e from Verizon Mobile

  * Motorola MOTO VU204 from from Verizon Mobile

  * Blackberry Bold 9700 from AT&T and T-Mobile

  * HTC Magic (T-Mobile MyTouch 3G) from T-Mobile

  * Kyocera Jax S1300 from Virgin Mobile

  * Palm Pixi from Sprint

  * Motoroloa MOTO VE440 from Metro PCS

  * Motorola i880 from Sprint

  * Blackberry 8820 from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless

See full list here: http://www.ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/Get-a-Safer-Phone?allavailable=1