Cellphones and the Brain

 

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health in the United Kingdom has found what is reported to be physical evidence of changes caused by the usage of cellular devices.  Specifically the study established a statistically significant increase in the consumption of glucose in the region near cellular phones’ radio transmitters. Unsurprisingly, those who claim that cellular phones cause brain cancer have leapt on this study, claiming it supports their hypothesis.  However, there is no reasonable interpretation of this study that can support such a link.

Firstly, the number of individuals tested was only 47, and the study has yet to be repeated or the mechanism explained.  This is a preliminary study, and the conclusions are interesting enough to warrant further research, but without additional studies using larger sample groups to confirm the results, the study itself is not very meaningful.

Finally, even if future studies do confirm these findings to a high degree of confidence, there is not a plausible mechanism that would link the results of this study to an increase in brain cancer.  The only known mechanism for radiation to cause  an increase in brain tumor rates is by damaging DNA.  The energy level of microwave photons used by cellphones is not high enough to lead to this effect at any flux level a person could reasonably be expected to be exposed to from cellphones or cellular towers.

Since the brain is essentially a dense collection of moving charges, it is not implausible that exposure to low energy electromagnetic sources might have a measurable physical effect; however, even if such an effect exists, there is no plausible mechanism for it to lead to an increase in the incidents of brain tumors, nor is there any good epidemiological evidence of a correlation. 

The results are interesting, but have no reasonable connection to the debate on whether cellular phones cause brain tumors.  Unfortunately, this is how the issue is being cast in the media.  The best science we have available indicates no good evidence of a correlation between cellular phone usage and brain tumors nor does it provide any physical explanation of how the radiation from cellular phones might cause such tumors.  To the best of our current scientific knowledge, the hypothesis that cellular phones cause cancer violate everything we know about physics and biochemistry.  This study makes no comment on that debate

 

Links:

Cellphone Use Tied to Changes in Brain Activity