Cell Phones Change Brain, Some Scientists Claim
Journalist: Lucas van Grinsven
Reuters
November 18, 2001
Mobile phones may cause damage to health by speeding up the
brain's response times, a British scientist told a recent conference.
As consumer concerns mount that prolonged mobile phone use could lead to
problems ranging from headaches to tumors,
a recent study showing an alarming rate of brain cancer in some cell phone
users is helping swing scientific opinion in Britain.
Dr. Alan Preece, head of biophysics at the Bristol Oncology
Centre, is among a group of scientists becoming increasingly convinced that
radiation from cell phones triggers chemical processes in the body that may
be harmful.
Six separate studies indicate that response times speed up when people are
exposed to radio frequency signals from mobile phones.
"Perhaps we now have to accept there is an effect on the brain," Preece
said.
"The response time has improved because of stress proteins, which are
switched on by a gene. This needs further research. The chronic exposure to
radio frequency signals might well have a detrimental [health] effect."
Stress proteins are produced when body temperature rises, but Preece and
other scientists said they can also occur purely as a result of RF signals,
when body temperature is normal.