Cell phone emissions excite the brain

Cell phones emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which excite the brain and have implications for people with epilepsy or other brain disorders.While the biological effects of EMFs on the overall body have been well studied, relatively few studies have looked at the effects of EMFs on the brain. Italian researchers from the Hospital Fatebenefratelli in Rome investigated how the brain reacts to EMF exposure from cell phones. They exposed 15 healthy men in their 20s and 30s to EMF signals from a common type of cell phone for 45 minutes and monitored the brain for electrical changes before, immediately after, and one hour after the use of a cell phone or the use of a 'sham' cell phone, which did not emit any EMFs. The participants were unaware of which type of phone they used. The vast majority of the men (12 of 15) showed electrical changes in the brain hemisphere next to the cell phone when it was turned on.

No changes were evident during sham EMF exposure when the cell phone was turned off or in the hemisphere of the brain not exposed to EMFs from cell phones. The cell phone-induced electrical changes in the brain were transient; the subjects' brain tended to return to pre-cell phone use conditions one hour after the exposure. The researchers emphasise that the above study showed only changes in electrical activity of the brain with cell phone use. They still don't know whether this effect is neutral or potentially dangerous or beneficial to cortical and brain functioning, but believe that starting from this observation, more research is needed both in healthy people and in specific groups of subjects suffering from neurological disorders in which cortical excitability is affected (eg. epilepsy). Further studies may yield information leading to the generation of safe rules for the use of this increasingly more widespread device.