Dial in cancer
OUT of all known sources that pose a cancer threat to humans, mobile phone is the latest. Nearly five million people in the UK could be at risk from developing cancer or asthma by using mobile phones. This has been concluded by scientists who carried out research in the US, Australia and Sweden for a consumer affairs programme. A mobile phone functions like a mini radio transmitter which sends microwaves to a receiving point up to several miles away. Researchers believe that these microwaves could be harmful to brain cells. Their experiments suggested a connection between the mobile phone and diseases like asthma, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Neuroscientists from the University of Washington in Seattle, US, said that microwave radiation similar to that emitted by mobile phones damaged deoxyribonucleic acid in the brain cells of rats who were exposed to them.