You've heard just how dangerous holding that cellphone upside your noggin is, but this time, the research is really for real. Reportedly, an award-winning cancer expert (Dr. Vini Khurana) has concluded that mobile phones -- in the long run -- could end up killing far more Earthlings than smoking or asbestos ever could. As we've heard countless times before, this fellow is warning that heavy mobile users could end up with brain tumors that threaten their livelihood, and feels that a direct link between handset use and certain tumors will be "definitively proven" in the next decade. Additionally, he suggests that individuals avoid using the cancer generators whenever possible, and that governments and the mobile industry at large take "immediate steps" to reduce radiation exposure. You won't be laughing if he's right.

[Via Digital Lifestyles]

So apparently, virtually all existing official limits for radiation emitted by mobiles (FCC, we're looking at you) are based on the assumption that the dangerous effects of that radiation are caused by heating of the brain. Pretty big assumption, eh? A new study by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science suggest that some "non-thermal" forces are at play, though, noting that chemicals involved in brain cell division were affected in tests on rats after just 10 minutes of exposure to cellphone radiation. Improper cell division goes hand in hand with cancer, so the finding is a rather alarming one. Of course, you know the drill: for every study that suggests phones are dangerous, we can certainly dredge up one that says they aren't -- just be forewarned that a cool brain isn't necessarily a healthy one.

[Via CNET]

We may not know whether your phone is going to kill you, but we can tell you that it excites your brain. This, uh, exciting news comes to us from a team at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, which used transcranial magnetic stimulation to monitor brain activity during subjects' phone calls. More often than not, brain cells adjacent to the phone went into an "excited" state during the call, but returned to normal within 45 minutes. What this means for your long-term health we're not exactly sure -- and neither is the Italian group. They do note that it might be of special relevance to folks with epilepsy, since excited brain cells have been linked to the disease. "It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," says their report. "Harmful or beneficial" -- thanks, guys; that really clears things up for us.

[Via I4U News]