Unknown authors · 2010
Researchers exposed 60 sensitive and 60 non-sensitive users to three 50-minute conditions: a signal with a 16 Hz component, a continuous wave signal at 385.25 MHz, and a sham condition, in a randomised double-blind design. Exposure to the continuous wave signal increased headache in all participants, fatigue in non-sensitive participants, and difficulty concentrating in sensitive participants, while reducing itching in sensitive participants. These effects were not seen with the 16 Hz pulsing signal except for concentration difficulties.
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
Researchers examined 9,508 individuals from the Study of Dementia in Swedish Twins to assess the association between occupational extremely low-frequency magnetic field exposure and dementia risk. Dementia diagnoses were based on telephone screening followed by in-person clinical workup, and main lifetime occupation was coded using an established EMF exposure matrix. Overall EMF exposure level was not significantly associated with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. However, in stratified analyses, medium and high EMF exposure were associated with increased dementia risk compared with low exposure in cases with onset by age 75 years and in participants with manual occupations. Results from 42 twin pairs discordant for dementia did not reach statistical significance.
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.
Redmayne M, Inyang I, Dimitriadis C, Benke G, Abramson MJ · 2010
The MoRPhEUS study included cordless phone access and use among 317 Year 7 students recruited from Melbourne, Australia. Researchers found a statistically significant positive relationship between cordless and mobile phone use (r = 0.38, p < 0.01). 87% of participants had a cordless phone at home and 77% owned a mobile phone.
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.
Luukkonen J, Juutilainen J, Naarala J. · 2010
Researchers aimed to investigate cooperative effects of 872 MHz RF radiation and ferrous chloride on ROS production and DNA damage in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. They exposed the cells to 872 MHz RF radiation at 5 W/kg SAR using continuous wave or GSM-like modulated signals for 1 hour in ROS experiments and 3 hours in comet assay experiments. Chemical treatments with ferrous chloride produced statistically significant responses, but RF radiation alone or combined with chemicals did not affect ROS production, DNA damage, or cell viability.
Okano T et al. · 2010
Researchers used a double-blind, counterbalanced crossover design with 10 normal subjects. Subjects performed antisaccade, cued saccade, and two overlap saccade tasks before and after 30 minutes of real or sham mobile phone exposure.
O'Connor RP, Madison SD, Leveque P, Roderick HL, Bootman MD · 2010
Researchers used a high-throughput imaging platform to monitor calcium changes in cells exposed to 900 MHz GSM fields at specific absorption rates of 0.012–2 W/kg. The study examined resting calcium, agonist-evoked calcium signals, calcium store emptying, and store-operated calcium entry. GSM field data were compared with continuous wave fields and no-field controls. No changes in calcium signals were detected even at the highest field strengths, which exceeded typical phone exposure levels. The researchers concluded they could not detect any consequence of RF exposure under their experimental conditions.
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.
Khurana VG et al. · 2010
Researchers searched PubMed and identified 10 epidemiological studies on mobile phone base station health effects. Seven studies examined neurobehavioral effects and three studied cancer. Eight of the ten studies reported increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living within 500 meters of base stations. None of the studies reported exposures above international guidelines, suggesting guidelines may be inadequate.
Johansson A, Nordin S, Heiden M, Sandström M. · 2010
Researchers assessed symptoms and psychological measures in 45 people with mobile phone-related symptoms and 71 with electromagnetic hypersensitivity, compared with a population-based sample of 106 and a control group of 63 using self-report questionnaires. The electromagnetic hypersensitivity group reported more symptoms overall, both EMF-related and nonrelated; the mobile phone group reported more somatosensory symptoms and the electromagnetic hypersensitivity group more neurasthenic symptoms. In direct comparison the groups differed only on somatization and listlessness; compared with reference groups the MP group had higher exhaustion and depression but not anxiety, somatization, or stress, while the EHS group had higher levels of all conditions except stress.
Hutter HP et al. · 2010
Researchers enrolled 100 consecutive tinnitus patients and matched controls in a case-control study. Mobile phone use was assessed using the Interphone Study protocol and analyzed with conditional logistic regression adjusting for education and urban residence. Regular mobile phone use and cumulative hours were not significantly associated with tinnitus, but use for four years or more showed an odds ratio of 1.95.
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.
