"Smog" from mobile phones makes you suicidal

Cell phones have been blamed for many ills, including making children fat, causing poor sleep, making one senile', leading to a sex disease or bringing on Alzheimer's - even damage mice sperm, but this is the first time I've read that cell phones could lead to suicide.

Electromagnetic "smog" from mobile phone networks and whitegoods could affect mood and behaviour, a psychiatrist says, reports the Sydney Morning Herald via The Inquirer.

Michael Berk, of the University of Melbourne, has found a link between the suicide rate and increases geomagnetic storms, triggered by solar flares.

Professor Berk, who treats patients with bipolar disorder, analysed suicides in Australia from 1968 to 2000 and matched them to data on solar flares.

The finding meant it was feasible that electrical and communications equipment could affect mood, Professor Berk said, though not inevitably for the worse."

John McGrath, professor of psychiatry at the University of Queensland, said the finding was important but it was hard to know how magnetism might biologically affect suicidal behaviour."

emily | 8:43 AM | Health Issues and SMS Alerts |
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