Effects of cell phone radiofrequency signal exposure on brain glucose metabolism
Volkow ND, Tomasi D, Wang GJ, Vaska P, Fowler JS, Telang F, Alexoff D, Logan J, Wong C · 2011
View Original AbstractA 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the brain region closest to the antenna.
Plain English Summary
Researchers used positron emission tomography to measure brain glucose metabolism in 47 healthy participants, once with the right cell phone activated for 50 minutes and once with both cell phones deactivated. Whole-brain metabolism did not differ between the on and off conditions, but metabolism in the region closest to the antenna was significantly higher in the on condition than the off condition. The researchers noted that this finding is of unknown clinical significance.
Why This Matters
Cell phones were placed on both ears, but only the right phone was activated during the on condition, with sound muted. Metabolism in the orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole measured 35.7 μmol/100 g per minute in the on condition versus 33.3 μmol/100 g per minute in the off condition, a difference that reached statistical significance at P = .004. The increases in metabolism were significantly correlated with the estimated electromagnetic field amplitudes for both absolute metabolism (R = 0.95, P < .001) and normalized metabolism (R = 0.89; P < .001).
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.901 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 837.8 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 50 min
Exposure Context
This study used 0.901 W/kg for SAR (device absorption):
- 2.3x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.4 W/kg
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
To evaluate if acute cell phone exposure affects brain glucose metabolism, a marker of brain activity
Randomized crossover study conducted between January 1 and December 31, 2009, at a single US labora...
Whole-brain metabolism did not differ between on and off conditions. In contrast, metabolism in the ...
In healthy participants and compared with no exposure, 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. This finding is of unknown clinical significance.
Show BibTeX
@article{nd_2011_effects_of_cell_phone_196,
author = {Volkow ND and Tomasi D and Wang GJ and Vaska P and Fowler JS and Telang F and Alexoff D and Logan J and Wong C},
title = {Effects of cell phone radiofrequency signal exposure on brain glucose metabolism},
year = {2011},
url = {https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/645813},
}