Auteurs
Rubin GJ, Hahn G, Everitt BS, Cleare AJ, et al. (2006)

The authors recruited 60 persons who reported often getting headache-like symptoms within 20 minutes of using a GSM cell phone, and 60 controls who did not report any such symptoms. Subjects were exposed for 50 minutes to either a 900 MHz GSM signal, or a non-pulsing carrier wave signal, or sham exposure. The exposures were randomized and the study was double-blind. SAR was 1.4 W/kg.

The “sensitive” individuals on average complained of headache during the exposure, and the severity increased during the exposure. However, there was no difference between the RFR exposure and sham exposure. Another 26 individuals, in addition to the 60 who completed all 3 exposure conditions, had to discontinue the study because of severe reactions.

Neither the “sensitive” individuals nor the controls could accurately determine which exposure condition they were receiving. The “sensitive” individuals believed a signal to be present during GSM exposure 60% of the time and 63% during sham exposure.

The authors suggest that since sham exposure was able to trigger severe symptoms in “sensitive” individuals, psychological factors may have an important role.