Well now we know for sure that holding a mobile phone next to your head does something to you — although it’s not entirely clear if the radiation is good, bad or indifferent (but I know which one I’d place money on). Shirley Wang reports on a new study for the Wall Street Journal:
Cellphone use appears to increase brain activity in regions close to where the phone antenna is held against the head, according to a new study, but researchers said the implications for health are still unknown.
The study is the first to demonstrate that radiation from the devices has a direct impact on some brain cells, and is likely to fuel a long-running debate over the safety of cellular phones.
“This study shows that the human brain is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation coming out of cellphones,” said Nora Volkow, an author on the study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “That is something we need to face.”
However, “our finding does not tell us if this is harmful or not,” said Dr. Volkow, who is head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Some medical experts have been concerned for years about the possible long-term health consequences of frequent cellphone use. The city of San Francisco voted in June to require cellphone retailers to post the amount of radiation emitted by each phone because of the concern…
[continues in the Wall Street Journal]
