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Best veiw with
Firefox 3
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Deadening Cell Phones
When I travel around the neighborhood in the Tampa area, I see more
people with cell phones stuck to their heads and I wonder, what could be
so important that it could not wait? Humans have become squirrels and
will soon be about as smart as one according to the sciences related to
cell division and growth.
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New doubts raised over mobile phone safety
31 August 2007 - By Nic Flemming - telegraph.co.uk
Just five minutes of exposure to mobile phone emissions can
trigger changes that occur during cancer development, according to new
research.
Scientists found mobile signals can activate cell division – central
to the growth of tumours - even at very low power levels.
Government guidance that mobile phone use is safe is based on the
mainstream scientific assumption that electromagnetic radiation from
devices such as mobiles could only cause health hazards as a result of
heating.
The new research, highlighted in this week’s New Scientist, supports
the position of some researchers who argue handsets can trigger
potentially harmful changes to cells irrespective of temperature
changes.
However other scientists said cell division is a natural process that
occurs constantly in the body and does not usually signify health
hazards.
Graham Philips, of the campaign group Powerwatch, said: "Current
safety guidelines assume health effects from mobiles can only occur
when significant heating of body tissue occurs.
"This study shows biological changes in response to low level mobile
phone radiation - something that could potentially have implications
for health.
"Further research is required, however guidance based purely on
thermal effects is clearly out of date."
Prof Rony Seger, a cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of
Science in Rehovot, Israel, and colleagues exposed rat and human cells
to electromagnetic radiation at a similar frequency to that emitted by
mobiles. The power of the signal was around 1/10th of that from a
mobile.
After just five minutes the researchers identified the production of
extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) – natural chemicals
that stimulate cell division and growth.
Cancers develop when the body is unable to prevent excessive growth
and division of cells in the wrong place.
Prof Seger said: "The real significance of our findings is that cells
are not inert to non-thermal mobile phone radiation.
"We used radiation power levels that were around 1/10th of those
produced by a normal mobile. The changes we observed were clearly not
caused by heating."
The UK has adopted international safety standards for electromagnetic
radiation set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising
Radiation Protection (ICNRP).
These state the amount of energy absorbed from an electric field or
radio wave cannot exceed two watts per kilogram (W/kg) when averaged
over 10 grams of tissue.
Almost all mobile phone emit less that than one W/kg.
Other scientists pointed out cell division occurs naturally as tissue
grows or rejuvenates within the body, and that the preliminary study
did not prove any health effects.
Dr Simon Cook, a biochemist at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge,
said: "The reason people are intrigued by this is this pathway is
frequently activated in cancer.
"The research is certainly interesting, however they saw a very
transient activation of this pathway, which we know is not sufficient
to promote cell division.
"In cancer you see a much stronger, persistent and sustained
activation and even this is just one of many changes required for
cancer development."
Dr Simon Arthur, from the University of Dundee, said: "The ERK1/2
pathway can be turned on by a huge variety of different things such as
natural compounds produced by the body that regulate cell growth, and
various forms of environmental and chemical stress.
"The research shows the effect on cells in culture in the tightly
controlled laboratory conditions, rather than cells in a person or
animal.
"In a living person there are lots of different processes occurring at
the same time, so we do not know whether the signal from radio waves
would produce a similar measureable effect."
The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR), an
£8.4 million Government and industry-funded investigation into the
potential health dangers of mobiles launched in 2001, is expected to
publish its final report next month.
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The
The
Labors in the Spirits of
Science
Living on the Lost Planet 
