 |
Fresh Fears Over CellphonesA Swedish study links mobile phones to brain damage. In rats, anyway.
The safety of cellphones has been called into question, again. This time the scientific community is paying very close attention.
Last summer neurosurgeon Leif Salford and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden published data showing for the first time an unambiguous link between microwave radiation emitted by GSM mobile phones (the most common type worldwide) and brain damage in rats. If Salford's results are confirmed by follow-up studies in the works at research facilities worldwide, including one run by the U.S. Air Force, the data could have serious implications for the one billion?plus people glued to their cellphones.
The findings have re-ignited a longstanding debate among scientists and cellphone manufacturers over cellphone safety.
Many of the hundreds of studies performed during the past decade suggest cellphone use may cause a host of adverse effects, including headaches and memory loss. Other studies, however, have shown no such effects, and no scientific consensus exists about the effect of long-term, low-level radiation on the brain and other organs. A comprehensive $12 million federal investigation of cellphone safety is currently under way but will take at least five years to
more: www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/ar... (39)
bookmark: 
27/5/2004 | Viewed 6,478 time(s)
|
|
