- Mobile phone radiation may damage cells by increasing
the forces they exert on each other, scientists have said.
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- The finding could be the key to claims that mobile phones
cause cancer and other health problems.
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- Swedish physicists looked at the effect of electromagnetic
radiation on red blood cells using a mathematical theory, New Scientist
reported.
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- Experts cautioned that the finding was theoretical and
said there was no evidence of a danger to health.
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- There have been suggestions that mobile phones can cause
brain tumours and Alzheimer's disease, but research has been inconclusive.
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- The conventional view has been that radio waves could
only damage a cell if they were energetic enough to break chemical bonds
or "cook" tissue. But radiation given off by mobile phone handsets
is too weak to do this.
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- Bo Sernelius at Linkoping University, Sweden, looked
at another possibility by modelling the properties of red blood cells.
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- Water molecules have poles of positive and negative charge
which create forces between cells. These forces are normally extremely
weak - about a billion-billionth of a newton.
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- Mathematical
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- The simplified mathematical model investigated the effect
of electromagnetic radiation in the field of 850 megahertz - about the
range used by mobile phones - on the blood cells.
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- The molecules all ended up with their poles aligned in
the same direction. The forces between the cells unexpectedly jumped by
about 11 orders of magnitude.
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- If confirmed by experiments, the results could give an
exmplanation for tissue damage. Stronger attractive forces between cells
might make them clump together or cause blood cells to contract, New Scientist
said.
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- Katie Daniel, deputy editor of the journal Physical Chemistry
Chemical Physics, said the finding was important.
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- "It highlights the idea that electromagnetic radiation
might act on cells by affecting the attractive forces between them rather
than simply causing heat damage to tissue," she said.
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- Camelia Gabriel, from King's College London, who is taking
part in the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme funded
by the Government, said the theory was feasible.
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- But she said the model was extremely simple and may not
apply to larger numbers of cells.
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- "It needs to be tested experimentally," she
said.
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- Dr Michael Clark at the National Radiological Protection
Board said: "You can do anything with numbers. It is very interesting,
but I can't get excited about it until somebody measures it."
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- Studies had not proved there was any danger to health
from mobile phones, he said.
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- "There is no evidence of cancer or anything else.
So it is so far, so good. But it is early days," said Dr Clark.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3605203.stm
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