After Brain Study, New Questions About Mobile Phones

01 March 2011

A man speaking on his cell phone in San Francisco

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

How important is your mobile phone, better known to Americans as a cell phone?

MAN: "I use my phone all the time. I'm always on my phone."

WOMAN: "It's kind of pretty much important to me because it's like my life saver."

WOMAN: "I need my cell phone."

So far, no studies have proven beyond question that the radio signals from cell phones cause brain cancer or other health problems. But a new study by government scientists in the United States has some people wondering what to think.

The scientists found that holding a cell phone to your ear for at least fifty minutes increases brain cell activity. Even the scientists themselves are not sure about the meaning of their findings.

Dr. Nora Volkow led the study. She heads the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Volkow says she would not be concerned that fifty minutes of cell phone exposure would harm anyone. But she says the research does show the need to study whether or there are long-lasting effects of repeated exposure over several years.

Her team studied forty-seven healthy volunteers between January and December of two thousand nine. The volunteers had cell phones placed against both ears while the scientists made images of their brain activity.