Cell Phones Raise Brain Glucose Metabolism Near Device's Antenna

"The results by Volkow et al. add to the concern about possible acute and long-term health effects of radiofrequency emissions from wireless phones," said Henry Lai, Ph.D., and Dr. Lennart Hardell.

"Although the biological significance, if any, of increased glucose metabolism from acute cell phone exposure is unknown, the results warrant further investigation," they noted.

An important question to address is whether brain glucose metabolism would be chronically increased from regular cell phone use – particularly the use of devices with higher radiofrequency energy than those used in this study.

It is also important to note that the cell phones in this study were receiving a call (with the sound muted), which generates less radiofrequency radiation than when a user speaks into a phone. So the effects observed in this study could be even more pronounced "in normal-use situations," they added.

Dr. Lai is in the department of bioengineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Hardell is in the department of oncology at University Hospital in Örebro, Sweden. Both said they had no relevant financial disclosures. Their comments were taken from their editorial accompanying Dr. Volkow’s report (JAMA 2011;305:828-9).