November 21, 1999
A study by a University of Washington
scientist finds that rats subjected to microwave radiation similar to
that emitted by cell phones suffer long-term memory loss.
Dr. Henry Lai placed 100 rats in a tank of
water and taught them to swim to a platform in the middle of the
tank. He then mixed powdered milk into the water so the rats could
no longer see the platform and had to navigate to it by memory.
The rats had memorized the route and had no
trouble finding the platform.
Lai then exposed half the rats to microwave
radiation and repeated the test. All of the exposed rates forgot
the way while the unexposed rats swam to the platform with no problem.
His study is to be published in a
forthcoming issue of Bioelectromagnetics.
There have been other
studies which suggest correlation between cell-phone usage and brain
tumors and the cell phone industry has appropriated $27 million to fund
additional study. But so far, government scientists and
independent researchers say it's too soon to draw definite conclusions.
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