Effects of 2G and 3G mobile phones on human alpha rhythms: Resting EEG in adolescents, young adults, and the elderly

Bioeffects Seen

Croft RJ, Leung S, McKenzie RJ, Loughran SP, Iskra S, Hamblin DL, Cooper NR. · 2010

Young adults showed greater alpha brain activity during 2G exposure than sham, but no such effect appeared in adolescents or the elderly, and 3G exposure had no effect in any age group.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers tested whether adolescents and the elderly are more sensitive to mobile phone-related bioeffects than young adults, using both 2G GSM and 3G W-CDMA exposures. Resting alpha activity in the 8-12 Hz band of the EEG was recorded and compared between conditions in a double-blind crossover design, with each participant receiving sham, 2G, and 3G exposures separated by at least 4 days. Young adults showed greater alpha activity in the 2G condition compared to sham, but no effect was found in adolescents or the elderly, and 3G exposure produced no effect in any group.

Why This Matters

Three age groups took part: forty-one 13-15 year olds, forty-two 19-40 year olds, and twenty 55-70 year olds. The crossover design meant every participant went through all three conditions: sham, 2G, and 3G exposures. The researchers chose alpha activity as the outcome measure because numerous studies had reported it to be enhanced by mobile phone exposure. The results provide further support for an effect of 2G exposures on resting alpha activity in young adults, but fail to support a similar enhancement in adolescents or the elderly, or in any age group as a function of 3G exposure.

Exposure Details

SAR: 0.7 and 1.7 W/kg
Electric Field: 0.03 V/m
Source/Device: 894.6 MHz 2G and 1,900 MHz 3G mobile phones
Exposure Duration: continuous for 55 min

Exposure Context

This study used 0.7 and 1.7 W/kg for SAR (device absorption):

1.7x 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

The present study was conducted to determine whether adolescents and/or the elderly are more sensitive to mobile phone (MP)‐related bioeffects than young adults, and to determine this for both 2nd generation (2G) GSM, and 3rd generation (3G) W‐CDMA exposures.

To test this, resting alpha activity (8–12 Hz band of the electroencephalogram) was assessed because...

Consistent with previous research, the young adults' alpha was greater in the 2G compared to Sham co...

The results provide further support for an effect of 2G exposures on resting alpha activity in young adults, but fail to support a similar enhancement in adolescents or the elderly, or in any age group as a function of 3G exposure.

Cite This Study

Croft RJ, Leung S, McKenzie RJ, Loughran SP, Iskra S, Hamblin DL, Cooper NR. (2010). Effects of 2G and 3G mobile phones on human alpha rhythms: Resting EEG in adolescents, young adults, and the elderly Bioelectromagnetics. 31(6):434-444, 2010.

Show BibTeX

@article{rj_2010_effects_of_2g_and_82,
  author = {Croft RJ and Leung S and McKenzie RJ and Loughran SP and Iskra S and Hamblin DL and Cooper NR.},
  title = {Effects of 2G and 3G mobile phones on human alpha rhythms: Resting EEG in adolescents, young adults, and the elderly},
  year = {2010},
  doi = {10.1002/bem.20583},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20583},
}

DOI: 10.1002/bem.20583