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Hands free cell phones at their best give the user a false sense of security and at their worse, cost lives. Think about it, while you're talking what difference does it make if your hand is up to your ear holding a phone or resting on the armrest? Not much. It's the distraction of conversation that causes accidents, not where you place your arm. In an emergency, you can quickly exit a distracting conversation with a handheld phone by simply dropping it onto your lap. With a hands free phone, your caller may continue to take away some of your attention as you try to avoid an accident.
Cell phone accidents happen while talking, not dialing. It is the distraction of a conversation that makes cell phone use on the road dangerous - especially if it is an emotional conversation. When you use voice dialing, you are conversing with your phone - and since voice recognition is not yet fool-proof, you may end up having a frustrating conversation with your voice dialing system - potentially distracting you from driving. While dialing a phone in the traditional way, we over-compensate in our alertness and may only dial a numeral or two at a time between watching the road. This is no different than glancing in your rear view mirror or locating the volume control of your radio.
If there's something that requires your immediate attention while driving, drop your phone! Apologize to your caller later - at least you'll live to be able to do so. Forget saying "excuse me", "Hang on a minute" or "bye" - just drop the phone or even grab the steering wheel while still holding the phone if need be - but forget the conversation and deal with the issue at hand.
Also explain that you may not answer all questions immediately as you may be silent while making a tricky left turn or other task requiring your full attention. You may need to ask your caller to repeat herself occasionally as you selectively ignore parts of the conversation as you deal with issues on the road. If your caller will not agree to these terms, for your safety and others, hang up.
Instead, integrate a mobile phone into your daily life. That way, when you find yourself stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere, you'll have a charged phone with you instead of a phone with a dead battery and/or expired minutes in your glove compartment.
Since the verdict is still out on whether or not cell phone radiation is harmful, it's best to keep it to a minimum. It's important to know that the lower the signal strength indicator is on your phone, the more radiation the phone needs to put out to compensate for the weak signal. Extending the antenna is designed to improve reception meaning your phone can communicate at a lower power - saving both you from increased radiation exposure and your battery life as well.
Many phones which have no protruding antenna - often referred to as "internal" antennas - actually DO have an external antenna you need to worry about. In these phones, the antenna is actually molded right into the phone's case itself. Usually you can tell because it'll be a different color from the rest of the phone and cannot be replaced with detachable faceplates etc. The best way to find out is to check your phone's manual - where you probably will find the very same warning to never to touch the antenna. When you touch it, you interfere with the reception and so the phone needs to emit more radiation to compensate. To spare yourself from increased radiation and to increase your battery life - never touch the antenna.