Mobile phones

[D J Hornsey <bssdjh@bath.ac.uk>]

  Dear Radsafers,
             As a follow up to Rachid Zitouni's posting, the Panorama
programme  mentioned covered some work in Bristol University in which
students were exposed to the levels of microwave radiation typical of many
'phones and were asked to carry out a variety IQ tests together with
assessment of their reaction times before and after expoure. It was these
latter tests that apparently demonstrated a significant effect. The
students reacted faster after the exposure. What I did find interesting
was that the Manufacturers were not over the moon about this finding. In
fact they kept very quiet about it. What they wanted was a demonstration
of zero effect. Any effect whether beneficial or otherwise was a
biological effect and this for them was bad news. It crossed my mind that
such an approach could be used to attack the proponents of a  hormetic
effect for ionising radiations. Just a thought.

David Hornsey.

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 * David J. Hornsey, Radiation Safety.*
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