DAILY MAIL (U.K.)
April 9, 1999

RADIATION CAN DAMAGE DEVELOPING BRAIN, SAY SCIENTISTS

Mobile phones may harm your child
‘It would be wrong to ignore this’

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE, Science Correspondent

CHILDREN may be putting their health on the line every time they call a friend on a mobile phone.

Radiation from the devices used by growing numbers of youngsters creates mysterious hot spots which could damage developing brains, researchers warned last night.

Within hours of the findings being published yesterday, the Health Department bowed to public pressure for a ‘definite and rigorous’ investigation into the risks of mobile phones, which manufacturers insist are quite safe.

The last study, the first of its kind, found the phones had a noticeable effect on how the brain works.

Volunteers carried out memory and intelligence tests while wearing a headset simulating the effects of a mobile phone.

Researchers at Bristol University found they made no difference to memory and did not trigger headaches or tiredness, they reported in the International Journal of Radiation Biology.

But reaction times in multiply choice tests sped up, and that could have long-term health implications.

The phones may be heating a region of the brain under the ear which controls speech and vision, according to Dr. Alan Preece, who led the research

Since the body protects heated tissue with ‘heat shock proteins’ which prevent immediate harm but can cause long-term damage including cancer, that could be a danger.

"The amount of space between the skull and brain is smaller in children so they possibly may be more at risk,’ he added.

Although it was not certain that radiation was causing the hot spots, he believed the amount reaching the brain could be more than scientists had previously thought. That possibility should be assessed ‘very carefully indeed.’

‘If heat shock proteins are being created, urgent further investigation will be needed,’ Dr. Preece added.

Yesterday the Government responded by announcing an independent working group of scientists, consumer’s representatives and manufacturers, to consider the latest research.

Health Minister Tessa Jowell said: ‘There has been no consistent evidence suggesting risk to health but there is continuing public concern about the possibility. It would be wrong to ignore this.’

Concern has been mounting about the long-term effects of a device which carries messages on the same form of energy as microwave ovens use to cook food, although cellphones work at far lower power.

If they are a danger, children aged eight and over are most at risk as they are more likely to use them.

Around 12million Britons – including a growing number of children, who see them as trendy status symbols – use mobile

Manufacturers point to the fact that there is as yet no hard scientific evidence that they are a danger and maintain that they do not produce enough power to heat the brain.

Tom Wills-Sandford, director of the Federation of the Electronic Industry, said: ‘On the totality of evidence there is nothing to lead us to believe that use of mobile telephones poses any risk of harm to health.

‘This research failed to find any link between mobile phones and memory loss.’

However, scientists are discovering that radiation from phones has strange and unexpected effects on living tissue

A study of 11,000 mobile users conducted by Dr. Kjell-Hansson Mild at the National Institute of Working Life in Umea, Sweden, suggested that regular use can lead to fatigue, headaches, and skin irritation.

Dr. Henry Lai at the University of Washington in Seattle has found that microwaves cause short-term memory problems in laboratory rats and makes them more likely to binge on alcohol and drugs.

In 1997, Australian scientists found evidence that mice exposed to low-level radiation developed more tumors.

University of Nottingham researchers have found that beaming mobile phone microwaves at tiny nematode worms makes them wriggle less and grow faster.

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