3G Waves Causes Headaches, Sharpens Memory

jonknee writes "MobileTracker noted that an interesting study on 3G cellular networks has been released out of Amsterdam. The findings were that exposure to 3G waves can cause headaches and nausea (conventional cellular service doesn't have these effects). It also found that those same subjects had better memory and reaction times (conventional cellular networks have the same effect)!"

Comments

Link to the report (in Dutch)

[DeBaas]

http://www.tno.nl/nieuws/archief/documenten/tno_fe l_report_03148mu.pdf

TNO is the Dutch equivalent of the German TUV if I'm not mistaken. A very respected institute in the Netherlands

Re:Link to the report (in Dutch)

[photonic]

Short translation:
-Two groups of people: 36 who had previously complained about GSM base stations and 36 who didn't.
-Persons where tested with cognitive tests while being subjected to EM field of GSM/UMTS base-station. Fields where relatively low, comparable to a normal daily exposure (I guess in case you live near a base-station, not like when you stick your head in the antenna).
-Statistical relevant relations were found between precense of field and 'experienced well-being' and 'results of mental tasks'.
-Calculated thermal effects are probably to small to be significant.
-Results are not well understood, more research needed.

Complot theory:
They probably measured nothing and just want money for a follow up experiment.

3G vs. 2G

[IAR80]

It has nothing to do with 2G over 3G as a technology in itself. It has to do with power levels and high frequencies. Meanining a 2400bps chanell at 30Ghz and an EIRP of 60dbw will mess you up pretty bad while an 11Mbps 802.11 17dbm at 2.4Mhz would not hurt you.

Re:So, where's the study?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Here you go: a management summary of the study, and more about the tests. Both in Dutch only, sorry.

The complete study can be found on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, here. This one's in English; don't be fooled by the Dutch management summary that is included at the start of the document.

Re:So, where's the study?

[ruudn]

TNO Report (english, pdf)

click on 'Onderzoek'

Not giving the direct link to prevent their server from going down (it's a 1.8 MB file)

Ruud

Re:alertness

[skaffen42]

Except that homeopathy doesn't work. Never has. Never will.

Great.. More junk science..

[brain1]

Great - they're at it again. There is absolutely no proven link between the minute RF field radiated by a handset and health problems. Basically there is too little energy for measurable tissue heating, the electromagnetic field is too weak to induce currents in the brain proper.

What everyone seems to forget is the fact we live in an ocean of pretty powerful RF energy that ranges from VLF (very low frequency) up to the microwave region (SHF). Every time you turn on an appliance you are exposing yourself to magnetic and RF fields magnitudes greater than that of a cell phone handset. Drive past a broadcast station and you're exposed to a field density measured in volts per meter, not millivolts. To put it perspective, your common FM broadcast station operates between 5 and 100 kilowatts ERP (effective radiated power). A television transmitter can operate up to 2-4 Megawatts of ERP. Where is the uproar over that?

Your common cellphone operates at a modest 3 watts (for car-mounted 800 mhz units) to a puny .1 to 100 milliwatts for the hand-held PCS units. That's barely enough to dimly light a flashlight bulb.

Remember these facts: You live in an ocean of electromagnetic energy. A bolt of lightning radiates tremendous RF energy. Mother earth gives off VLF emissions herself. The sun bathes you in RF in the microwave region. And have you cleaned those gaskets around the door of your microwave oven? It operates at 800 to 1000 watts of power at 2.4 GHz. All it takes is a grungy gasket or a bent door and your taking on watts of very effective heating.

I am the holder of a First Class FCC license, an Extra Class amateur license, and have worked with broadcast, land mobile, fixed service, radar, and amateur radio for decades. I have never experienced, nor have I ever encountered anyone who has experienced a health related problems for working in a high RF field. People are more likely to be injured from high voltage, burns, and mechanical means.

Please stop trying to get funding by spreading this faux academic nonsense. Quit manipulating data to make yourselves look right and then run out and cry the sky is falling. We're all tired of this and have heard quite enough.

Re:So, where's the study?

[Oddly_Drac]

"Is the actual study available anywhere"

Not yet published. This is the kind of short-circuiting of peer review that starts to get silly after a while.

Re:I, for one...

[MCZapf]

Ummmm, the temperature where vira die is probably more like 200 degrees (Fahrenheit), rather than 100.

That old argument is/has always been wrong.

[Fantastic Lad]

But don't feel bad. It's the same one the Air Force was selling to its soldiers who worked the early radar arrays, and its the first line of defense which was adopted and which has been used ever since by big business and the government. The argument being, "If the power is too low to cause damage through heating, then there is no danger."

If only this were true!

There is a mountain of science which has recognized the following. . .

1. Biological nervous systems are electrochemical in nature. This is why EEG scanners work; they are able to pick up on EM activity generated by the brain. This being the case, electromagnetic signals MUST be able to also cause an effect. --To be very blunt, speakers and microphones are interchangeable.

2. There are documented mechanisms through which low power, non-ionizing EM fields can affect the function of the nervous system.

3. Very small currents are all that are needed to causes these effects.

4. High frequency signals which are modulated to replicate lower frequencies, (As seen in Cell phone technology), are sufficient to cause effects.

5. The ocean of EM we live in DOES have an effect. Sleep, reproductive and various other biological cycles have been shown to be deeply affected, and often reliant upon ambient EM from the Earth and sky.

Here's an article with some photos of slices of brain tissue taken from rats exposed to cell phone EM. The effects are real.

-FL