Health

Cell Phones Cause Insomnia!

The 884 MHz radio waves...

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

22nd of January 2008, 09:04 GMT

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We are in the middle of a vivid debate regarding how the wireless technology could affect our health.

"In the long term - 10, 20 and 30 years out - we have a lot less information about potential effects from these types of wireless devices", warns Frank Barnes, a distinguished professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"Studies (should) pay special attention to the effects of RF energy on children, adolescents, pregnant women and fetuses from exposure to hand-held devices as well as base-station antennas that transmit such signals", said Barnes.

"While studies targeting RF energy radiation on the human head from cell phone antennas held against the ear have been conducted, some newer cell phones and Web-surfing devices have antennas in proximity to other body regions like the waist, requiring more study.

A number of studies also have shown a steep increase in mobile phone use by children, ensuring that younger generations will experience much longer periods of RF exposure. The fact that some cancers have a 10-to-20-year latency period make these broad, long-term studies potentially important", he added.

And here comes this warning: chatting on a mobile phone before bedtime would cause you insomnia!

"If you feel you have trouble sleeping, you should think about not talking on a mobile phone right before you go to bed," Bengt Arnetz, a professor of social medicine and stress research at Uppsala University, north of Stockholm (Sweden), told AFP.

His team of scientists, from Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in Michigan, has discovered that mobile phone radiation provokes insomnia, headaches and concentration difficulties.

The 18-month trial was made on 35 men and 36 women aged 18 to 45. The subjects were intermittently exposed to 884 MHz wireless signals, the same radiation you experience when talking on a cell phone. Placebo subjects were exposed to sham radiation.

"The ones who were exposed reported headaches, it took longer for them to fall asleep and they did not sleep as well through the night. We had enormous amounts of data," said Arnetz, pointing to the fact that this is the largest research so far on the topic, but also that further research would be required to uncover how exactly does radiation impair neural sleep patterns.

TAGS:

insomnia | phone | radio | waves

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