Cellphone microwave
radiation allows
leakage in the Blood-Brain barrier !
There is information about 2
research reports on this page -
1. Swedish
conservative newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" writes about new Swedish research finding that the blood brain
barrier can be penetrated by exposure to microwave radiation of the sort used with cellphone transmissions.
2. "The
Guardian", UK newspaper reports on a Finnish study that has warned mobile phones could cause the brain's defences
against toxins and infection to be weakened.
1.
The Swedish conservative newspaper "Svenska
Dagbladet" writes about new Swedish research confirming old results (E.g. Oscar et al, 1977!): 1999-09-15
Protecting the brain .......
The blood-brain barrier is a cell layer between the blood that circulates in
the blood vessels of the brain and the actual brain tissue. Oxygen and nutrition is let inside by the barrier
while carbon dioxide and waste products are transported out through it. The barrier hinders some medicines and
several poisonous substances to invade and injure the brain.
Phones make brain receptive to poison
New Swedish research shows that the radiation from mobile phones might make
it easier for poison to penetrate into the brain. The findings could explain the diseases that American soldiers
who have participated in high-tech warfare are suffering from.
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Upper
Normal rat brain.
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Lower
This rat brain had been exposed to microwave fields
similar to those from a mobile phone handset.
The dark spots are albumen that has come into the
brain through the blood-brain-barrier opened by the radiation. |
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The microwave radiation from cellphones can open the safety barrier that is
supposed to protect the brain from being invaded by poisonous substances contained in blood. A research team at
Lund university has found that the protein albumen leaks through the so called blood-brain-barrier into the brain of
rats that have been exposed to microwaves similar to those irradiated by a mobile phone. Albumen is naturally
contained in blood but it can harm the brain.
"We're seeing extremely small amounts of protein and we don't know how
dangerous it is," says Leif Salford, a neurosurgeon Lund hospital.
But other experiments, where albumen has deliberately been injected into rat
brains, have shown that very small amounts can harm the brain cells. Amounts not much greater than the ones we
have found can kill nerve cells.
It is still impossible to tell whether the leakage that the Lund research
team has found in rats actually means that mobile telephony damages the human brain.
Leif Salford, the neuropathologist Arne Brun, and the radiation physicist
Bertil Perssion still want the results to be taken seriously. The blood-brain-barriers of humans and rats are
similar in function.
Furthermore, since albumen can get into the brain there is reason to believe
that other smaller or equal sized molecules can too.
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Proteins found in the blood can, if they get to the brain, cause auto immune
diseases such as MS, multipel sclerosis.
-
Damaged nerve cells could also lead to dementia, prematured aging, and
Parkinson's disease.
- Inflamed brain cells can indirectly be linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Medication that under normal circomstances wouldn't be able to penetrate the
blood-brain-barrier could do so and cause damage.
The unexplained symptoms of American soldiers of the Kuwait war are suspected
to link to the medication they took against nerve gas. The microwaves surrounding soldiers in high-tech warfare
could have opened the blood-brain-barrier, and the medication penetrated into the brain. The possibility is now
investigated by the US Air Force in co-operation with the Lund scientists.
Especially worrying is the fact that even very low microwave effects seem to
affect the brain. WHO's threshold value for mobile phones is two watts absorbed effect per kilogram of body
tissue.
According to Salford and his colleges, even at 0.0001 - 0.001 of a Watt there
is a notable amount of albumen in the brains of 50 % of the rats examined. The radiation from the cell phone
towers would therefore be enough to affect the brain. A person in the vicinity of someone using a cell phone can
be affected by the radiation from the phone. The very low effects are also the ones that affect the brain the
most.
At a few tenths of a watt only a third of the rats are affected, and at a few
Watts even less than that. This means that the problem can't be easily solved, for instance, by shielding or by
using earphones.
In biological systems, there are often "windows" where the
organism is more sensitive. A weaker pulse mimics the signals of the body and are therefore recognised.
The WHO threshold values only consider tissue heating. The electrical
signaling of the body is affected in a completely different way, says Leif Salford. The Lund research team has
investigated microwave radiation at both 900 MHz and 1800 MHz, as used by different cell phone systems. Both
frequencies show the same results, but lower frequencies penetrate deeper into the brain.
It doesn't seem to matter how long you talk on a cellular phone; the
blood-brain-barrier is opened at once. The albumen remains in the rat brains for several days after exposure to
microwaves. Studies to examine the long-term effects are being planned.
Ulrika Bj_rkst+n / translation by Adam Huuva
2.
ANOTHER STUDY
SHOWS SIMILAR CONCERNS
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The Guardian, U.K.
Thursday, 20 June 2002 |
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James Meek, science
correspondent |
Mobile phone radiation could alter brain cells,
study suggests
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Mobile phones could cause the
brain's defences against toxins and infection to be weakened, a Finnish study has warned.
The scientist who led the
investigation, Darius Leszczynski, cautioned that his research - which beamed mobile level radiation at human
brain cells cultured in Petri dishes - did not necessarily mean mobiles were dangerous. But he said the
results made it all the more important to carry out further research into the risks of low level radiation.
Professor Leszczynski's report,
published several weeks ago in the journal "Differentiation", showed that, potentially,
several hundred of the tens of thousands of chemicals operating in a certain type of human cell could be altered
by the weak microwaves broadcast by mobiles.
The cells were from the walls of
blood vessels in the brain. The brain is full of blood vessels, but specialised cells create a screening
system known as the "blood-brain barrier", to make sure that toxins and microorganisms circulating in
the blood do not get into brain cells.
Prof Leszczynski found that, at
the maximum legal limit for mobile radiation, one protein in particular, HSP 27, was affected. HSP 27 played
a critical role in the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
"I would not yet say it is
worrying ... but in my opinion this research does justify putting more money into human studies to find out
whether this is a real danger," said Prof Leszczynski, who works for Finland's radiation and nuclear safety
authority.
The microwaves from mobile phones
were too weak to damage brain cells by "cooking" them. But scientists have known for some time
that even weak microwaves can cause changes to cells which cannot be explained.
Early experiments such as Prof
Leszczynski's were behind the caution in the otherwise reassuring assessment of mobiles by the government's
inquiry, chaired by Sir William Stewart, which reported in 2000. More than 40 million people in Britain have
mobiles.
The Stewart Commission inquiry did
not commission its own research, but reviewed (some of the) work already done by other scientists.
Only after the report came out did the government start funding research targeting mobile phone safety.
END
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