Mobiles
Potentially Harmful To Human Cells
ZDNet UK
Journalist: Graeme Wearden
December 11, 2000
Research
using realistically shaped computer simulations human cells concludes that
mobile phones cause more intensive electric fields within tissue than
previously thought
Spanish
scientists have discovered that mobile phones generate a greater --
potentially harmful -- electric field within human cells than previously
thought and that the electric field is actually amplified by the shape of some
cells.
Previous
research into the effects of radiation on human tissue has been conducted on
the assumption that they are cylindrical.
A team at
Madrid's University Complutense studied how non-spherical cells react to
radiation and found a greater electric field intensity is generated within the
cell than in earlier studies. They also discovered that the angle between the
cell and the radiation source is crucial and that electric fields are
amplified across cell membranes -- a factor not considered before.
Professor
Jose Luis Sebastian, who led the researchers, explained that in order to
understand the mechanisms that underlie the biological effects caused by
electromagnetic radiation it is essential to consider the combined effects of
shape and cell interaction.
Last month a
UK scientist writing in The Lancet claimed children are at particular
risk from electric fields generated within living cells by mobile phones. Dr
Gerard Hyland warned that the low-intensity, pulsed radiation used by mobile
phones exert subtle non-thermal influences on living organisms, which could
also affect a number of brain functions.
There is
widespread confusion over the safely of mobile phones. Last Friday the
government launched a £7m research program into the issue, but withdrew its
previous advice that hands-6.00 mobile phone kits protect against radiation.
Recent research by the Consumer Association found that hands-6.00 kits
actually increase the amount of radiation a user is exposed to.
