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.
