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Brain & Nervous System

Use of wireless telephones and serum S100B levels: A descriptive cross-sectional study among healthy Swedish adults aged 18-65 years.

No Effects Found

Söderqvist F, Carlberg M, Hardell L · 2009

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This study found no blood-brain barrier disruption from wireless phone use, but low response rates and small effect sizes limit definitive conclusions.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Swedish researchers tested whether wireless phone use affects the blood-brain barrier (the protective boundary between blood and brain tissue) by measuring S100B protein levels in blood samples from 1,000 adults. They found no significant association between phone use and elevated S100B levels, suggesting that wireless phones don't appear to compromise blood-brain barrier integrity based on this biomarker.

Study Details

Using serum S100B as a putative marker of BBB dysfunction we performed a descriptive cross-sectional study to investigate whether protein levels were higher among frequent than non-frequent users of mobile and cordless desktop phones.

One thousand subjects, 500 of each sex aged 18-65 years, were randomly recruited using the populatio...

The response rate was 31.4%. The results from logistic and linear regression analyses were statistic...

This study failed to show that long- or short-term use of wireless telephones was associated with elevated levels of serum S100B as a marker of BBB integrity. The finding regarding latency of UMTS use may be interesting but it is based on small numbers. Generally, S100B levels were low and to determine whether this association - if causal - is clinically relevant, larger studies with sufficient follow-up are needed.

Cite This Study
Söderqvist F, Carlberg M, Hardell L (2009). Use of wireless telephones and serum S100B levels: A descriptive cross-sectional study among healthy Swedish adults aged 18-65 years. Sci Total Environ. 407(2):798-805, 2009.
Show BibTeX
@article{f_2009_use_of_wireless_telephones_3406,
  author = {Söderqvist F and Carlberg M and Hardell L},
  title = {Use of wireless telephones and serum S100B levels: A descriptive cross-sectional study among healthy Swedish adults aged 18-65 years.},
  year = {2009},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18986685/},
}
PubMed: 18986685

Cited By (23 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

A 2009 Swedish study of 1,000 adults found no significant association between wireless phone use and elevated S100B protein levels in blood. The research showed that mobile and cordless phone use doesn't appear to compromise blood-brain barrier integrity based on this specific biomarker measurement.
Swedish researchers found one statistically significant result: UMTS phone latency showed effects specifically in men (p=0.01) among 31 participants. However, this finding was based on small numbers and requires larger studies to determine if it's clinically relevant or meaningful.
The 2009 Swedish study found a weak negative association between cordless phone use and S100B levels (p=0.052) among 98 participants. This suggests cordless phones might slightly lower this blood-brain barrier marker, though the relationship wasn't statistically significant.
S100B protein serves as a biomarker for blood-brain barrier integrity, but the Swedish study found generally low S100B levels across participants. Researchers concluded that larger studies with longer follow-up periods are needed to determine clinical relevance of any associations.
The Swedish S100B study had a 31.4% response rate from 1,000 adults, with some subgroups having very small numbers like 31 men using UMTS phones. Researchers emphasized that larger sample sizes are essential for reliable conclusions about wireless phone health effects.