Subject:  Cell Phones May Damage Nerves in the Scalp (Gordon)..
Date:     Wed, 16 Aug 2000 082933 -0500
From:     Roy Beavers 
To:       guru 
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.......From EMF-L.........

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: (fwd,newsclip) Cell Phones May Damage Nerves in the Scalp
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 05:44:43 -0400
From: Jeff Gordon 
To: guru@emfguru.com

(reposted under Fair Use provisions)


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As cellular phones become ubiquitous, their
status as a possible health threat--either as a distraction to drivers
or a potential cause of brain tumors--is gaining more attention.  Now,
investigators say there is evidence that cell phones may damage nerves
in the scalp.

In the current issue of the journal Occupational Medicine, Australian
researchers report on a patient whose cell phone use appears to have
damaged nerves in his scalp.

According to Drs.  Bruce Hocking and R.  Westerman of Caulfield General
Medical Centre in Victoria, this nerve injury may explain the scalp pain
they have found in 40 cell phone users so far who complain of burning
feelings or dull aches around the ear, the temple, or back of the head.

In this case, the 72-year-old man suffered pain only on the right side
of his head, where he held his cell phone.  He described his symptoms as
a persistent "bruised" feeling that was "on the head," rather than "in
the head." The pain extended from the right side of his head to his
cheek and neck.  The investigators found signs of sensory damage in some
nerves in the right side of man's head, but not on the left.

Hocking told Reuters Health that these findings offer a "plausible
neural basis" for the symptoms among the 40 cell phone users his team
has identified.  In other words, he said, their pain is not just "all in
their minds."

While it is unclear how cell phones might harm scalp nerves, Hocking
noted, it is unlikely that it is the heat that radiates from the
phones.  Such thermal effects have been put up as a possible risk for
brain tumors.  If heat were behind this man's scalp pain, Hocking said,
his lifetime of Australian summers would have produced similar
symptoms.  Besides, he added, the scalp has a very efficient cooling
system.

Instead of burning the skin, cell phones may somehow disturb nerve
function in the scalp, according to Hocking.

He stressed, however, that this research does not offer any support to
the theory that cell phones contribute to the formation of brain
tumors--a health condition that would arise from genetic damage, rather
than nerve injury.

Hocking and Westerman conclude that "exposure to the head from mobile
phone radiation should be minimized by using short call times and the
use of hands-free or other devices."

SOURCE: Occupational Medicine 2000;50:366-368.

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 

 -- Jeff --   

 "There's nothing left in the world to prove.  All that's worth doing
  is to love one another, using whatever means are available to serve."


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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com