Supporters of a bill to require cell phones in Maine to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer say the United States is lagging behind other countries that have endorsed warnings.
The possibility that cellular phones have an impact on human health has generally been viewed in terms of the potential to do harm, primarily by inducing or promoting the growth of cancer. But a study that will be published by the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease may turn that all on its head. The study examined the performance of mice that received a daily dose of radiation similar to that produced by cell phones, and found that, over a period of several months, their memory improved. When the same procedure was performed with mice engineered to be predisposed to Alzheimer's pathology, it was actually able to reverse some of the cognitive decline. The findings are very preliminary, and need to be interpreted cautiously, but there's an interesting lesson in this.
