RF brain damage link found in Swedish study by JEFFREY SILVA
* February 03, 2003
WASHINGTON-A Swedish-funded study published in an U.S. government health journal
says mobile-phone exposure caused brain damage in lab rats.
The study, published last Wednesday in the online edition of the journal
Environmental Heath Perspectives, is said to represent the first time
researchers have found damage to neurons in rat brains exposed to radiation from
mobile phones. Researchers said radiation from GSM mobile phones, which are
prevalent around the world, was associated with leakage in the blood-brain
barrier. The blood-brain barrier serves as a filter of sorts that shields the
brain from harmful chemicals.
"If it's replicated as a study it may indicate an insufficiency in our current
standard," said Robert Curtis, a scientist at the Occupational Safety and Health
Agency and a member of a panel of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers that is crafting updated radiation exposure
guidelines for mobile phones and communications transmitters.
The mobile phone industry insists mobile phones do not pose a health risk.
Government health officials here and overseas say research to date has not
linked wireless handsets to adverse biological effects in humans, but they say
they cannot guarantee phones are safe and that more research is needed. There
are 140 million mobile phone subscribers in the United States and more than 1
billion worldwide.
Industry downplayed the new study.
"The scientific community, public health authorities and others presumably will
treat this as they would any researcher claiming a novel finding," said Norm
Sandler, director of global strategic issues for Motorola Inc. "They will ask
questions about the design, the exposures and the statistics underlying the
reported results to assess its significance in a proper context."
Last September, a federal judge in Baltimore dismissed an $800-million brain
cancer suit against Motorola. But U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake-who ruled
plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient scientific
evidence to warrant a jury trial-still has a slew of similar cases pending
before her. The Motorola cancer suit is being challenged in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va. Attorneys
at the law firm of Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles and a trial
lawyer who has won huge judgments in tobacco and asbestos litigation, filed the
opening brief on behalf of 43-year-old Christopher
Newman on Jan. 21. Motorola and possibly other wireless firms are expected to
file responses later this month.
Environmental Health Perspectives is the journal of National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., a unit of the
National Institutes of Health and a branch of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. Brandon Adams, a spokesman for the
journal, said the mobile phone study was peer reviewed and that 96 percent of
scientific papers submitted to the publication are rejected.
The journal's press release said researchers, led by Leif Salford of the
Department of Neurosurgery at Lund University in Sweden, studied 12- to
26-week-old rats because their developmental age is comparable to that of human
teenagers-heavy users of mobile phones The research was funded by a grant from
the Swedish Council for Work Life Research.
"The situation of the growing brain might deserve special attention since
biological and maturational processes are particularly vulnerable," the
researchers stated. "We cannot exclude that after some decades of often daily
use, a whole generation of users may suffer negative effects as early as middle
age."
The researchers, who acknowledged their study sample was small, nevertheless
said the combined results are highly significant and exhibit a clear,
dose-response relation. Establishing causation is a key element in health
litigation.
"Scientists have been looking for some time at the possible effects of exposure
to the energy coming out of cellular phones," said Jim Burkhart, science editor
of Environmental Health Perspectives. "These
scientists decided to look in a new place, studying potential nerve damage,
rather than cancer growth. Their results suggest a strong need for further
study, as we all rely on cell phones more and more."
Jo-Anne Basile, vice president of external and industry relations at the
Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, urged caution. "You cannot
make a judgment based on a single study. You want to look at the way research is
trending and at the preponderance of scientific evidence." Basile said studies
continue to show no adverse health effects from mobile phones, adding that
handset emission is subject to strict federal guidelines.
The concept of
specific absorption rate (SAR) has been around for many years, but
recent developments have test methods in question for public safety
concerns. Learn
more >>
There are 50,000 trillion
cells in the body, and even in older people the body is still actively
creating another billion new cells every hour, so the incorruptibility
of DNA is all- important in our health and survival Learn
more >>
Please don't let your
KIDS use
cell phones except in emergencies! Children have much thinner skulls.
CLICK TO VIEW IMAGES 5 yr 10 yr
Adult
