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No effect of an UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic field of 1.97 GHz on human attention and reaction time.

No Effects Found

Unterlechner M, Sauter C, Schmid G, Zeitlhofer J. · 2008

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Short-term 3G phone exposure showed no immediate effects on attention or reaction time, even at levels exceeding normal use.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers exposed 40 healthy volunteers to UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic fields at 1.97 GHz while testing their attention and reaction time on computer tasks. The study found no statistically significant effects on cognitive performance, even at exposure levels up to 1.49 W/kg SAR (specific absorption rate, a measure of how much energy the body absorbs). This suggests that short-term exposure to 3G mobile phone signals does not immediately impair basic cognitive functions like attention and reaction speed.

Study Details

The aim of this study is to investigate No effect of an UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic field of 1.97 GHz on human attention and reaction time.

In our study, 40 healthy volunteers (20 female, 20 male), aged 26.0 years (range 21-30 years) underw...

In the high exposure condition the resulting peak spatial average exposure of the test subjects in t...

Therefore, this study does not provide any evidence that exposure of UMTS mobiles interferes with attention under short-term exposure conditions.

Cite This Study
Unterlechner M, Sauter C, Schmid G, Zeitlhofer J. (2008). No effect of an UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic field of 1.97 GHz on human attention and reaction time. Bioelectromagnetics.29(2):145-153, 2008.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2008_no_effect_of_an_3456,
  author = {Unterlechner M and Sauter C and Schmid G and Zeitlhofer J.},
  title = {No effect of an UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic field of 1.97 GHz on human attention and reaction time.},
  year = {2008},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17957702/},
}

Quick Questions About This Study

Researchers exposed 40 healthy volunteers to UMTS mobile phone-like electromagnetic fields at 1.97 GHz while testing their attention and reaction time on computer tasks. The study found no statistically significant effects on cognitive performance, even at exposure levels up to 1.49 W/kg SAR (specific absorption rate, a measure of how much energy the body absorbs). This suggests that short-term exposure to 3G mobile phone signals does not immediately impair basic cognitive functions like attention and reaction speed.