May 17, 2004
Mobile phones are a pain in the neck
The Register reports on a Nordic survey which claims "84 per cent of 11,000 mobile users surveyed suffered warmth behind the ear or even burning skin. Memory loss, dizziness, fatigue and headaches were also evident"
"The year-long study was carried out by three organisations - Sweden's National Institute for Working Life, SINTEF Unimed in Norway and the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. It found nearly a quarter of those questioned had memory loss, nearly half reported headaches and almost two-thirds said they felt abnormally drowsy. Around a third had difficulty concentrating during or just after a call. Symptoms were worse in those under 30, or in the heaviest users. Researcher Dr Gunnhild Oftedal said: "There could be a range of factors for this but we can't exclude anything related to radiation."
A separate study has revealed that severe neck pain, or phone neck, is caused by tilting your head and talking into a phone for too long.
Should this study be taken seriously or not? Hard to tell, but bear in mind that scientists and psychologists have blamed cell phones for everything - from making children fat, to triggering the onset of Alzheimer to being responsible for a new form of addiction disorder as well as leading to sexually transmitted diseases. cf Cell Phones' Bad Rap.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2004/05/003862.htm