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 medicins 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.
This rat brain has 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.
The microwave radiation from cell phones 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.
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. Also, 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.
