Kesari KK, Kumar S, Behari J. · 2011
Researchers exposed 35-day old Wistar rats to a mobile phone for 2 hours per day for 45 days at a specific absorption rate of 0.9 W/Kg. Animals were divided into a sham exposed group and an exposed group, each with 6 animals. The exposed group showed a significant decrease in glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, and a significant increase in reactive oxygen species. The researchers concluded that these findings on biomarkers are clear indications of possible health implications.
Dragicevic N et al. · 2011
Researchers evaluated brain mitochondrial function in aged Alzheimer's transgenic mice and normal littermates following one month of daily EMF exposure. In the transgenic mice, EMF treatment enhanced brain mitochondrial function by 50-150% across six established measures, with the greatest effects in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. EMF treatment also increased brain mitochondrial function in normal aged mice, though the enhancement was not as robust or widespread as in the transgenic mice. The researchers suggested that brain mitochondrial enhancement may be a primary mechanism through which EMF treatment provides cognitive benefit to both transgenic and normal mice.
Carballo-Quintás M et al. · 2011
Researchers studied the effects of acute 900 MHz GSM radiation exposure on neurotoxic biomarkers c-fos and GFAP in rats also treated with picrotoxin, a seizure-promoting agent. Seventy-two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent immunochemical testing to measure c-fos induction after 90 minutes and 24 hours, and GFAP 72 hours after acute exposure to a 900 MHz electromagnetic field. The results indicated that c-fos and glial markers were triggered by the combined stress of non-thermal irradiation and the toxic effect of picrotoxin on brain tissue.
Trosić I et al. · 2011
Researchers exposed male Wistar rats to 915 MHz radiofrequency radiation with GSM modulation at a whole-body average SAR of 0.6 W/kg for one hour per day, seven days per week over two weeks. A comet assay was used to assess DNA damage, measuring tail length and tail intensity. Tail length notably differed in liver and kidney homogenates of exposed animals compared to sham controls, and the tail was slightly elongated in irradiated animals' brain cells. The results suggest that repeated 915 MHz irradiation could be a cause of DNA breaks in renal and liver cells, but did not affect the cell genome at a higher extent compared to basal damage.
Unknown authors · 2010
Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of nine studies that met minimum design criteria, all using 50 Hz magnetic field exposure. Small but significant effect sizes were found in two cognitive dimensions: exposed subjects performed better on the hard level of visual duration discrimination but worse on the intermediate level. A significant improvement in correct responses was also observed in the flexibility dimension under exposure. However, the authors caution that the small number of studies per dimension makes the estimates unstable and the findings must be treated with extreme caution. Overall, the meta-analysis provides little evidence that ELF-MFs have any effects on cognitive functions.
Unknown authors · 2010
The review describes the blood-brain barrier as endothelial cells with tight junctions, pericytes, and extracellular matrix that maintains a stable environment for synaptic transmission. Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields that raise brain temperature by more than 1°C can reversibly increase barrier permeability for macromolecules. The balance of experimental evidence does not support an effect of non-thermal radiofrequency fields at microwave and mobile phone frequencies on barrier permeability. Evidence for effects from magnetic resonance imaging fields is conflicting and limited by confounders and simultaneous exposure to different field types. Research on low-frequency fields and human studies is sparse or virtually absent, preventing conclusions.
Divan H et al et al. · 2010
Researchers analysed a new dataset of DNBC children to see if a larger, separate group would produce similar results after considering additional confounders. The highest odds ratio for behavioural problems was found in children with both prenatal and postnatal cell phone exposure compared to those unexposed, with an adjusted effect estimate of 1.5 (95% CI 1.4 to 1.7). The findings replicated the previous publication, showing that cell phone use was associated with behavioural problems at age 7 years, and this association was not limited to early users of the technology. Although weaker in the new dataset, the associations remained even with further control for an extended set of potential confounders.
Parazzini M et al. · 2010
Researchers investigated the potential effects of UMTS exposure at a high specific absorption rate on the human auditory system in 73 healthy young adults. Participants received a 20-minute UMTS exposure at 1947 MHz with a maximum SAR of 1.75 W/kg in a double-blind comparison of genuine and sham exposure. No consistent pattern of effects was found on hearing thresholds, otoacoustic emissions, or auditory evoked potentials. The study concluded that short-term UMTS exposure at this SAR does not cause measurable immediate effects on the human auditory system.
The INTERPHONE Study Group. · 2010
An interview-based case-control study with 2708 glioma and 2409 meningioma cases and matched controls was conducted in 13 countries using a common protocol. Ever regular mobile phone use was associated with reduced odds ratios for glioma (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70-0.94) and meningioma (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.91), possibly reflecting participation bias. No elevated odds ratio was observed 10 or more years after first phone use for either tumor type. In the highest decile of recalled cumulative call time (≥1640 hours), the odds ratio for glioma was 1.40 (95% CI 1.03-1.89) and for meningioma was 1.15 (95% CI 0.81-1.62), but the authors noted implausible values of reported use in this group.
Inskip PD, Hoover RN, Devesa SS. · 2010
Researchers examined temporal trends in brain cancer incidence rates in the United States using SEER program data from 1992 to 2006. Trends were downward or flat for all age groups except 20- to 29-year-olds, where females showed a statistically significant increase. The increase in young women was driven by frontal lobe cancers, while cancers in brain regions more exposed to phone radiation did not increase. The authors concluded that the incidence data do not support the view that cellular phone use causes brain cancer.
Elliott P et al. · 2010
The study was a case-control study using cancer registry and national birth register data in Great Britain with 1397 cases aged 0-4 and 5588 controls matched by sex and date of birth. Mean distance from a macrocell base station, total power output within 700 m, and modelled power density at the birth address were similar for cases and controls. Adjusted odds ratios for all cancers were 1.01 (0.87-1.18) for intermediate and 1.02 (0.88-1.20) for highest modelled power density exposure, with no significant trends for brain and central nervous system cancers or leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Kwon MS et al. · 2010
Auditory event-related potentials including P1, N2, mismatch negativity, and P3a were recorded from 17 children aged 11–12 years using the multi-feature paradigm. During recording, an ordinary GSM mobile phone emitting 902 MHz pulsed at 217 Hz was placed on the ear over the left or right temporal area with SAR1g = 1.14 W/kg and SAR10g = 0.82 W/kg. The short exposure of two 6 min blocks per side had no statistically significant effects on the neural change-detection profile measured with MMN. The study only had sufficient statistical power to detect a large effect size.
Kwon MS, Jääskeläinen SK, Toivo T, Hämäläinen H. · 2010
Researchers investigated the effects of a GSM mobile phone electromagnetic field on brainstem auditory processing. Auditory brainstem responses were recorded in 17 healthy young adults at baseline without a phone and then with a phone on the ear under EMF-off and EMF-on conditions. ABR waveforms showed no significant differences due to exposure.
Hirose H et al. · 2010
Researchers exposed primary microglial cell cultures from neonatal rats to 1950 MHz W-CDMA RF fields at SARs of 0.2, 0.8, and 2.0 W/kg for 2 hours. The percentage of MHC class II positive cells, a marker of microglial activation, was similar between exposed and sham-exposed groups. No statistically significant differences were observed in MHC class II positive cells across any RF exposure group compared to sham controls. Cytokine production of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 also showed no remarkable differences between exposed and sham groups.
Finnie JW, Cai Z, Manavis J, Helps S, Blumbergs PC · 2010
Researchers exposed mice to 900 MHz RF fields at 4 W/kg for 60 minutes or five days per week for 104 weeks. Control mice were sham-exposed or freely moving in cages, and positive controls received a stab wound. No increase in microglial Iba1 expression was found in exposed brains compared to controls, while positive controls showed substantial activation. Acute or two-year exposure did not produce microglial activation detectable by Iba1 immunostaining.
Vrijheid M et al. · 2010
A birth cohort was established in Sabadell, Spain between 2004 and 2006. Mothers completed questions about cell phone use in week 32 of pregnancy (n = 587) and their children's neurodevelopment was tested at 14 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (n = 530). We observed only small differences in neurodevelopment scores between the offspring of cell phone users and nonusers. Those of users had higher mental development scores and lower psychomotor development scores, which may be due to unmeasured confounding, and there was no trend with amount of cell phone use within users.
Thomas S et al. · 2010
The study included 236 adolescents who completed both examinations. Mobile phone ownership and weekly voice calls and SMS increased from baseline to follow-up. Participants with more voice calls and SMS at baseline showed smaller reductions in response times across computerized tasks. Increased voice calls and SMS over the year were associated with changes in response time on a simple reaction and a working memory task. No associations were found between mobile phone exposure and the Stroop test.
Kundi M. · 2010
Researchers identified 33 epidemiologic studies in the peer-reviewed literature, mostly 25 about brain tumors. Methodologic considerations revealed three important conditions for detecting increased risk are not met: no evidence-based exposure metric, observed duration of mobile phone use generally too low, and no evidence-based selection of end points among neoplasias due to lack of etiologic hypotheses. The overall evidence speaks in favor of an increased risk, but its magnitude cannot be assessed at present because of insufficient information on long-term use.
Heinrich S, Thomas S, Heumann C, von Kries R, Radon K. · 2010
A population-based cross-sectional study in Germany from 2006 to 2008 generated 24-hour exposure profiles for 1484 children and 1508 adolescents using personal dosimeters. Acute symptoms were assessed twice daily with a symptom diary, and only a few statistically significant associations were found, including higher headache intensity in adolescents with highest morning exposure at noon and higher irritation and concentration problem intensities at bedtime. The authors observed that the few significant results were not consistent over the two time points, could not be confirmed in the top 10% highest exposure group, and concluded the associations likely occurred by chance.
Hardell L, Carlberg M, Hansson Mild K. · 2010
Researchers conducted a case-control study of deceased brain tumor cases aged 20-80 years diagnosed during 1997-2003, using two control groups of deceased individuals who died from other cancers or other diseases. Exposure was assessed via questionnaires sent to next-of-kin, with response rates of 75% for cases, 74% for cancer controls, and 60% for other-disease controls. Mobile phone use showed increased risk with >10 years latency (OR=2.4, 95% CI=1.4-4.1) and with >2,000 hours cumulative use (OR=3.4, 95% CI=1.6-7.1), while cordless phone use showed no clear association.
Crespo-Valero P et al. · 2010
The methodology enhances dosimetry assessment using finite difference time domain simulations or compliance dosimetry measurements. Applications include detailed dosimetric analysis of brain exposure during cell phone use and improved design of exposure setups for human studies. A hierarchical labeling scheme mapped onto high-resolution human models automatically identifies over a thousand brain sites. Electromagnetic absorption can be extracted and interpreted for any brain region or combination of regions.
Christ A, Gosselin MC, Christopoulou M, Kühn S, Kuster N. · 2010
Researchers compared absorption in cortex regions using MRI-based head phantoms of adults and children exposed to different mobile phone models. Locally induced fields in children were significantly higher (>3 dB) in brain subregions (cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus) and the eye due to closer phone proximity. Bone marrow showed an even larger increase (>10 dB) due to its high conductivity. Pineal gland showed no increase as its distance to the phone does not change with age. The study confirmed no age-dependent changes in peak spatial SAR when averaged over the entire head.
Angelone LM, Bit-Babik G, Chou CK. · 2010
Researchers performed a finite-difference time-domain simulation of a human head model with EEG electrodes and leads exposed to RF sources at 915 MHz and 1748 MHz. Whole-head and peak 10-g average SAR changed by less than 20% with leads present, and peak SAR values remained below ICNIRP and IEEE limits. However, a volumetric assessment revealed a two-order-of-magnitude increase in single-voxel power absorption in the epidermis and a 40-fold increase in the brain when metallic leads were used with a 915 MHz mobile phone.
Vecchio F et al. · 2010
Researchers recorded eyes-closed resting EEG data from 16 healthy elderly subjects and 5 young subjects during GSM-on and GSM-off conditions lasting 45 minutes each. Spectral coherence measured inter-hemispheric synchronization across delta, theta, and alpha frequency bands. Elderly subjects showed a statistically significant increment of inter-hemispheric coherence of frontal and temporal alpha rhythms during the GSM condition compared to young subjects. The results suggest GSM-EMFs affect inter-hemispheric synchronization of alpha EEG rhythms as a function of physiological aging.
Thomas S, Heinrich S, von Kries R, Radon K · 2010
Researchers randomly selected 1,498 children and 1,524 adolescents from population registries in four Bavarian cities and measured their RF exposure over 24 hours with personal dosimeters. Mental health behaviour was assessed using the German version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Measured exposure in the highest quartile was associated with overall behavioural problems in adolescents but not in children. Exposure was associated with conduct problems in both children and adolescents.
