Cellphone radiation alters proteins in human skin: Finnish study
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 | 4:11 PM ET
The Associated Press
Research from Finland indicates that protein in human cells is altered when subjected to cellphone radiation, but the health effects of such radiation remain unclear.
The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority subjected a small area of skin on the forearms of 10 female volunteers to cellphone radiation — otherwise known as radio frequency modulated electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) — for one hour.
The report found that biopsies from the exposed skin showed alterations not seen in similar biopsies on non-exposed skin.
"Even if the changes are small, they still exist," said researcher Dariusz Leszczynski.
But he said the study did not indicate any possible health hazards and was conducted to find out only whether living human skin responds to cellphone radiation.
The study, published Monday in the online journal BMC Genomics, said that analysis of 580 proteins identified eight proteins that were affected.
