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As consumer concerns mount that prolonged
cell 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
Bristol Oncology Center, 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 now indicate that
response times speed up
when people are exposed to radio frequency (RF) signals from
mobile phones. "Perhaps we now have to accept
there is an effect on the brain," Preece told a London
conference on the health risks of mobile phones.
"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,"
states Preece.
Stress
proteins are produced when body temperature rises,
but Preece and other scientists said they can
also be released purely as a result of RF signals,
when body temperature is normal.
Other research from Sweden and Switzerland
has indicated that radiation
from mobile phone calls disturbs sleep.
In a study not yet published in scientific
literature, Swedish professors Lennart Hardell and Kjell Hansson
Mild found that people who had used analog mobile phones for
up to 10 years had a 26% higher risk of brain cancer than
a "control" sample of patients.
The study has unsettled many scientists
-- even though it is based largely on a previous generation
of mobile phones, many of which were installed in cars with
aerials on the roof, and which emitted signals continuously,
unlike the latest, digital phones.
"One can no longer go around saying
there is no link (between cell phone use and health effects),"
Preece said.
"Without
question, there is a biological threat," agreed
James Lin, professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering
at the University of Illinois. "The question is how hazardous
cell phone use is."
He noted that it takes nearly a decade
for most brain cancers to develop -- longer than the period
of use covered by most studies.
Reuters
September 21, 2001
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