Cell Phones Impair Rats’ Memory

I try to avoid posting research findings obtained in animals, as there’s such a huge gap in extrapolating findings from lab animals to humans. But once in a while something comes along that may have implications. And anyway, I don’t like cell phones very much, so I’m quite content to see them taking a hit, even if it’s largely theoretical.

Lund University, Sweden, provided Science Daily with information on a one-year study in rats that were exposed to mobile phone radiation for two hours a week. The memory test was the third exposure of the rats to objects in a box placed in different positions; this was done at the end of the year. Rats that had been exposed to cell phones were less curious about the positioning of the objects, suggesting that their memory for the objects and their placement was impaired.

In earlier studies, the research tem had obtained results showing that microwave radiation from cell phones could affect the blood-brain barrier, the cell layer that controls access of chemicals to the brain from the blood stream. More work is clearly needed to see just how the radiation affects the brain tissue and its functioning. In the meantime, this is a good sign that we should consider limiting cell phone use to really important messages!