New Controversy Over Cellphone Radiation

Scientists can?t seem to decide whether cellphones are safeor not. Now Dariusz Leszczynski at the Radiation and NuclearSafety Authority in Finland has found that one hour ofexposure to cellphone radiation caused cultured human cellsto shrink. The blood-brain barrier normally preventsunwanted molecules from entering the brain, but cellphoneradiation targets proteins in the “stress fibers” of thecells that line blood vessels, which causes these cells toshrink. Leszczynski thinks cellphone radiation might allowdangerous molecules to pass through the spaces betweencells, that become enlarged due to the shrinking of the cellitself, and get into the brain that way.

Scientists once thought the only way cellphones could damagecells was through heat, but their energy levels are too lowto cause any heating. Now it?s been shown that the newphones can produce radiation that affects cells withoutheating them.

David de Pomerai, a cellphone researcher at the Universityof Nottingham in the U.K., says the study doesn?t explainexactly how and why cellphone radiation shrinks the cells.”Until you can demonstrate a mechanism and demonstrate thatit is not a heat-activated process people will dismiss it,”he says.

“If the blood-brain barrier is even temporarily affected bymobile phone radiation it might have long term healtheffects,” Leszczynski says. “How harmful to the health itmight be is impossible to say for now.”

Kids are some of the most enthusiastic cellphone users,since they?re always on the go and want to talk to theirfriends away from eavesdropping parents. Now the WorldHealth Organization has issued a warning advising parentsnot to let their children spend too much time talking oncellphones.

“I would be cautious about letting children use mobilephones for hours every day, because we don’t know enoughabout the damage,” says WHO Director-General Gro HarlemBrundtland.

But you couldn?t tell whether or not they were talking ontheir cellphones if they had a tiny cellphone implanted in atooth. This may become a more popular fad than tattoos orpiercing. It could also be used in places like restaurantsand theaters, where cellphones are banned.

James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, of the Royal College of Artin London, have developed a cellphone that fits inside atooth. It picks up signals with a radio receiver and uses atiny vibrating plate to turn them into sound that movesalong the jawbone to the listener?s ear. It could beimplanted during routine dental surgery.

Want to find out what new inventions are coming along in thefuture? Check out ?Exploring Scrying? by AmbroseHawk,click here.

To see a photo of the new tooth cellphone,clickhere.

To read about cellphone radiation,clickhere.

To read why cellphones may not be safe for kids,clickhere.

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