Report claims Phone mast allergy 'in the mind', page 1

There are a few things wrong with this study.

Firstly the observer was known to be part of the study. This is a poor practice. What should have been done is a measure of general illness in built up areas around mobile phone and wireless internet masts. This way the general sample is larger and the subjects are not aware there is a test going on.

Secondly I'd like to point out that:
While it may be psychological, it may also be real, at the same time. Allow me to elaborate: If you found that low power microwave devices did give you headaches and you got used to this point, then simply knowing one was nearby might cause the same effect, even if it were off. Just because your mind makes it real when its not there does not mean that it isn't real when it IS there.

This may be as simple as a defense mechanism in the human species. Remembered pain can be as real as real pain as long as it serves to force you to avoid the object or person which providing the pain (or danger) originally.

Finally, I remind you all of the existing very real evidence linking mobile phone radiation to cancer.

www.newscientist.com...

But Leszczynski has found that phone radiation somehow targets proteins in "stress fibres" in endothelial cells, which line blood vessels. This causes the endothelial cells to shrink.

No mechanism

Leszczynski conducted the research at temperatures too low for heat to account for the biochemical changes in the cells.

But de Pomerai warns the study does not reveal the mechanism by which mobile phone radiation caused these changes. "Until you can demonstrate a mechanism and demonstrate that it is not a heat-activated process people will dismiss it," he told New Scientist.

This is because microwaves do not have enough energy to break even weak chemical bonds - so most scientists believe the only way they could possibly damage cells is through heating. But the energy levels of mobile emissions are set well below those required to cause any heating.

Long-term effects

The blood-brain barrier normally prevents unwanted molecules from entering the brain. But mobile phone radiation might allow molecules to pass through small spaces between cells, caused by the shrinking.

Alternatively, stress fibres might transport molecules directly across the cell membranes, as has been shown in some animal studies.

"If the blood-brain barrier is even temporarily affected by mobile phone radiation it might have long term health effects," Leszczynski says. "How harmful to the health it might be is impossible to say for now". Human studies are urgently needed to determine this, he says.

This was a study from back in 2002.

Yes the mobile phone companies are hushing this up. Yes it is probably as bad as smoking. I choose not to use a mobile phone because of this research and the fact they annoy the hell out of me.

[edit on 26-7-2007 by Yandros]