Mobile phones and headaches

Dr Alan Frey has argued convincingly that mobile phones are responsible for causing headaches.

Since the 1960s it has been known that people exposed to very low intensity microwaves hear sounds such as buzzes, clicks or tones. Known as “microwave hearing”, this phenomenon is thought to take place in the cochlea. People thus affected, who were the subjects of Frey’s experiments on microwave hearing in the 1960s, often reported headaches. Because mobile phones transmit in the most sensitive frequency band for microwave hearing, it is not surprising that many mobile phone users - particularly users of digital phones - also report headaches.

According to Frey there are two mechanisms that may account for this effect.

Firstly, there is evidence that headaches may be caused by the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. A number of studies indicate that this barrier is in fact opened by exposure to low intensity microwaves - particularly pulsed waves.

Secondly, electromagnetic fields are known to affect the dopamine-opiate system of the brain which may also be involved in headaches.

Frey's conclusions that headaches occur at “approximately the same frequencies, modulations, and incident energies that present day cellular telephones emit” were reported over 30 years ago. Since then mobile phone technology has proliferated ... and with them the incidence of headaches.

(Frey, Alan, “Headaches from Cellular Telephones: are they real and what are the implications”, Environmental Health Perspectives, March 1998, pp. 101-103.) EMRAA wishes to thank “Electrical Sensitivity News” (September-October 1998) for this information.

EMRAA News Dec 2001, Vol 6 No 4