Frequent Cell Phone Use May Slow Brain Function Matt Hamblen, Computerworld
Tue Sep 18, 9:00 PM ET



There have been worries about cell phones causing brain cancer. And certainly everyone worries about driving behind the guy who's holding the steering wheel with his knees while tapping in a message on a wireless e-mail device.


But now hear this: Mobile phone use may cause a slowing of brain activity.


Before anyone panics, the suggestion that frequent mobile phone use makes us behave a little unbalanced is, so far, based on a study of 300 people conducted by researchers in Australia, England and the Netherlands.


The study, published in the International Journal of Neuroscience this month, looked at the group of 300 people over 2.4 years, but researchers plan to expand the study over a longer period and with data involving 17,000 people.


According to the study, frequent mobile phone users demonstrated slowed brain function, but with the caveat that the slowed brain effects are still considered within normal brain functioning. A longer study with a larger sample group would consider whether the slowed brain activity should be considered an adverse health effect, according to a statement from Brainclinics Diagnostics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, one of the groups involved in the study.


The noted slowed brain function could not be explained by differences in personality, according to researchers. "In Alzheimer's dementia you also find a severely slowing of brain activity," said Martijn Arns, the main investigator for Brainclinics Diagnostics, in a statement. "However, the slowing found in this study, with mobile phone users, can still be considered within 'normal' limits." Still, Arns predicted that a longer-term study would show more severe effects.


Of the 300 people in the study, only 100 were frequent mobile phone users, while 100 were non-mobile phones users and the third group of 100 were an intermediate user group. Differences in brain activity, as measured with quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) studies, and neuropsychological functions such as attention, memory, executive function and personality, were assessed. Among the results, frequent users scored higher on ratings as extraverts and were found to be less open-minded.


The study also found that frequent users also showed improved focused attention, which was explained by a learning effect due to making more phone calls in busy places where users had to focus better on a phone call while filtering out background noise and other distractions.


Despite this improved focus and the findings about personality, the frequent users showed more instances of slowed activity as measured by delta and theta EEG power, as well as a slowdown in a measurement called alpha peak frequency.


The researchers cited several other studies going back to 1998 on the short-term effects of mobile phone use, some of which showed that frequent users improved their scores on cognitive tests. Those positive outcomes were linked to small increases in brain temperature, which led to faster metabolic activity and thus faster reaction times. However, the researchers in the current study said the previous studies are inconclusive.


In the recent study, Brainclinics was joined by researchers at Radbound University in Nijmegen, the Institute of Psychiatry in London and The Brain Resource Co. Ltd. in Sydney.

Weird study. I mean, in the end you're still just talking on a phone. Would the same thing hold for someone who works in a call center or as a receptionist (eep!) count for the same differences in brain activity? I call foul.

Study: Cell Phones Could Be More Dangerous Than Cigarettes
A study by an award-winning cancer expert shows that cell phone use could kill more people than smoking, it is reported.

By Geoffrey Lean
Sunday, 30 March 2008


Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this will be "definitively proven" in the next decade.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".

I am no expert here.

I am posting to:

1.) Say that hardwired phone lines would most likely be much safer than wireless phones that receive signals and such.

AND

2.) Say sorry for mangling your username in some other thread. I dunno why I remember except for you saying only PJ fans mess up your name. Weird thing, the words in your username are part of one of my favorite Pearl Jam lyrics.

I'm having a weird day.

Cell phones are only deadly in the hands of SUV drivers.

I forget what the first study was about. . . i think it had more to do with the brain activity, than the type of phone being used.

And no worries on the name thing. We cool

I haven't read the article, but isn't this a chick/egg problem. I think frequent cell phone users are people who 20 years ago, I would have called "stupid and annoying."

One of my roommates uses his cell-phone with what I would say is beyond obsessive frequency. Probably 75% of the time is spent texting, but at least an hour is spent talking on it every day. I swear to god, he texts while eating, while riding in a car, while in movies, while at concerts, while walking down the street. It's unfuckingbelievable.

And for the most part I agree with you B, people that use their cell-phones too much is really annoying. The worst thing about these people is they seem constantly distant and preoccupied, it's like they are living on another planet.

Anyway, I better show him this study. Hah.

good thing i hate talking on the phone

so, are cell phones more dangerous than marijuana?

yeah, you can OD after enough phone usage.

The sample size in that first study is pretty small.

I didn't see any numbers in that second study while skimming it.

That being said, I've heard the same thing from more than one neurosurgeon. Surface brain tumors increasing since the increased popularity of cell phones and a positive correlation to what side the person holds the phone to while talking.

I don't talk on my phone that much. It's in my pocket all the time, though. I don't understand why i haven't heard anything about an increase in testicular cancer. The gonads are much more radiosensitive than the nervous system.

Perhaps i should look it up instead of waiting for someone to tell me.

i always plug in my earpiece and talk on that unless i'm out at night or something. i think that decreases the brain radiation factor, no?

Yes.

Well yeah, but then you're one of those people.

to be honest, ever since i found the earpiece in the bottom of a drawer at home i've been using it and i would never not use it if i could. it makes talking on the phone so much easier. plus, i'm not increasing the chances of killing myself!