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Acoustic neuroma: an INTERPHONE report from 5 countries There have been a number of research papers on acoustic neuroma and cell phones. For more, see "Research - Epidemiology". Another paper has been published (on-line) on the subject. This one is part of the INTERPHONE collaboration, and reports results from four Nordic counties and the UK. The Odds Ratio (OR) was 0.9 for regular mobile phone use, and there was no increased risk with duration of use, in contrast to the results of Lonn et al. (2004), who found a somewhat raised risk for those using a mobile phone for 10 years or more. The latter authors' results are included in the present study. The authors state
Reference:
Schoemaker MJ, Swerdlow AJ, Ahlbom A, Auvinen A, et al. Mobile phone
use and risk of acoustic neuroma: results of the Interphone case-control
study in five North European countries. British Journal of Cancer, published
on-line August 30, 2005. A review of cell phones, base stations, and cancer The authors of a recent review of cell phones, base stations, and cancer conclude:
For more on this topic, see "Research - Epidemiology", and "Toxicological studies". Reference:
Moulder JE, Foster KR, Erdreich LS, McNamee JP. Mobile phones, mobile
phone base stations and cancer: a review. Int J Radiat Biol 2005;81:189-203. Possible explanation for the heat-shock protein response to EMFs in C. elegans This group of authors had previously reported that heat-shock proteins were produced by C. elegans as a result of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). In the present paper the authors were able to demonstrate by the use of magnetometry and transmission electron microscopy that there was "compelling evidence" that C. elegans contains magnetite, which has the ability to absorb a significant amount of energy into the organism. They suggest that the presence of magnetite may provide a physically plausible explanation for the heat-shock protein responses seen in their earlier experiments. For more, see "Toxicological experiments - Others - Heat shock response". Reference:
Cranfield CG, Dawe A, Karloukovski V, Dunin-Borkowski RE, et al. Biogenic
magnetite in the nematode caenorhabditis elegans. Proc Biol Sci 2004;271
Suppl 6:S436-9. Some people report that they are sensitive to EMFs - that is, they suffer a range of symptoms when exposed to weak EMFs. Most studies have been unable to confirm the phenomenon. Rubin and colleagues carried out a review of provocation studies and came to the conclusion that "it has proved difficult to show under blind conditions that exposure to EMFs can trigger these symptoms". They found 31 published experiments, of which 7 related to mobile phone hypersensitivity. Reference:
Rubin GJ, Das Munshi J, Wessely S. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity:
a systematic review of provocation studies. Psychosom Med 2005;67:224-232.
Lack of EMF effects on blood-brain barrier There
have been a number of studies that have examined the effect of EMFs
on the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This barrier prevents substances with
a high molecular weight from passing from the blood into the brain.
If EMFs do alter the BBB it might be possible for toxic substances to
penetrate into brain tissues. Cosquer and colleagues did a variety of
experiments in an attempt to explore the effect of EMFs, and could not
find any evidence of BBB disruption. Reference: Cosquer B, Vasconcelos AP, Frohlich J, Cassel JC. Blood-brain barrier and electromagnetic fields: effects of scopolamine methylbromide on working memory after whole-body exposure to 2.45 GHz microwaves in rats. Behav Brain Res 2005 ;161:229-237.
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