At 07:58 AM Friday 4/28/2006, The Fool wrote:
<<http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/27/060427110534.coym1bs2.html>>
Australian research shows mobile phones affect brain function
Radiation from mobile phone phones affects the way the brain works,
Australian researchers have found.
Scientists from Swinburne University of Technology's Brain Sciences
Institute in Melbourne found people's response times slowed during a
30-minute mobile phone call but their memory appeared to improve.
The researchers conducted a series of psychological tests on 120
volunteers as they were exposed to mobile phone emissions for half an
hour.
Another set of tests was conducted on volunteers who were not exposed
to mobile phone radiation but thought they were.
The results, published in April's edition of the journal
Neuropsychologia, showed a small but discernable change in brain
function among those who were exposed to the electromagnetic fields
that mobile phones generate.
"The study showed evidence of slower response times for participants
undertaking simple reactions and more complex reactions, such as
choosing a response when there is more than one alternative," lead
researcher Con Stough said.
"This could equate to driving a car and being distracted by another car
pulling out in front of you. The drivers reaction time to chose between
braking, turning or sounding the horn, could be affected, albeit
slightly.
"The study also found that radiation from mobile phones seems to
improve working memory, used for example when remembering a phone
number long enough to dial it."
He said further work was needed using magnetic resonance imaging to
clarify the way mobile phones alter on the way the brain works.
Q. for Dr. Z. or anyone else who may have the necessary
expertise: Is there any way for a subject to use a cell phone while
undergoing a cranial MRI? For that matter, is there any type or
frequency of EM radiation that a cell phone produces which is more
powerful than that which would be experienced by a person undergoing
a MRI of his/her brain? If not, how could any effects be
definitively attributed to the cell phone radiation?
Stough said further, as-yet-unpublished, research by his team suggested
the impact of mobile phone radiation on the brain was cumulative.
"People, for instance, who use the mobile phone a lot seem to have more
of an impairment than people who are more naive users," he said.
As I have (only semi-humorously) mentioned previously, people who yap
constantly on any type of phone seem to have some sort of
"impairment" which does not necessarily seem to have anything to do
with radiation . . .
(Which is why 90+% of the time I let my landline go directly to the
answering machine, since experience shows that about 90% of the calls
are from telemarketers or similar nuisances, and about 90% of those
are pre-recorded or computer-generated messages. As I would tell a
live telemarketer if one ever called and I happened to pick up, "I
don't pay $XX a month for a phone line because I don't get enough
unwanted advertising from people trying to get me to send them money
from TV, radio, the newspaper, magazines, billboards . . . )
However, he stressed that the impact on brain function was small and
the study did not find that mobile phones caused a health problem.
"We haven't established that there's negative health consequences --
that's a different type of study," he said.
"We're just showing that the radiation is actually active on the brain.
But the impairment is small. The convenience and the way that we
communicate now these days outweighs that effect."
Perhaps I missed something, but it sounds like what they did was
compare people who were talking on an active phone for 30 minutes
with people talking on a dummy phone for 30 minutes and concluded
that it was the radiation from the active phone which caused a
difference. To conclude that it is actually the radiation, istm that
they need to conduct an experiment where one group is bombarded by
equivalent radiation for 30 minutes while doing something other than
trying to carry on a phone conversation (or doing absolutely nothing)
versus a control group which does the same thing (or the same
nothing) for 30 minutes while not being bombarded by radiation. Or
compare people talking on a landline for 30 minutes with people not
talking on any kind of phone, as istm that the more likely reason
people using a cell phone for 30 minutes show psychological changes
is that they get involved in the conversation to the expense of
paying attention to whatever is going on around them.
------
"In Japan, rape is how you say hello.
Shouldn't that be "herro"? (As long as we are being offensive, that is. :P)
I am Learn custom from Hentais."
--Jack Chick Parody
--Ronn! :)
"Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country
and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER
GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that
would be eliminated from schools too?"
-- Red Skelton
(Someone asked me to change my .sig quote back, so I did.)
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