There is a fear in society about mobile phones frying the brain and power cables giving us cancer. ITV1’s Mobile dealt with it last night. Yet this is known as an ‘irrational’ fear. It is so named because science says there is no evidence of ill effects.
Fair enough. Whether this means there are none, or science is not good enough to find them, is not for this post. Rather, I want to suggest an area attached to the debate that, as far as I’m aware, has never been researched.
Anything electrical gives off electromagnetic radiation, or EM. Now this is funny stuff. Naturally, it can be quite impressive during a thunderstorm. Ever noticed that calmness of mind before the storm? This could well be EM actually affecting your mood.
There has been research into EM effects on the brain. One Canadian study fixed up a device that would send EM pulses into the brain. It showed a noted change in chemical levels in the body, but more than this, it affected the psychology of the subject. Not only did the person’s mood change, but various hallucinatory effects were noted.
Is our need for electronics getting to the stage that, on a social level, changes in EM could be affecting our psychology en masse? Could the rise in anger, in psychological illness, and other factors, be down to our techno-revolution?
I don’t know. Nobody does. Nobody’s looked. That’s worrying.
© Anthony North, Feb 2007
Click HERE for review of Mobile
