Watt’s The Buzz? EMR & Health December 2015 Issue

Driver distraction

It seems that people just can’t stop using their mobile phones—even when they’re driving!

Researchers in the US observed two groups of drivers: a thousand while stopped at traffic lights and another thousand while in motion. They found that eight percent of those who were in motion were either talking on their mobile phones or texting. Among those stopped at traffic lights, over six percent were talking and over 14 percent were texting. (Bernstein, JJ and Bernstein, J, BMC Public Health 15(1):968, Sept. 2015.)

Ideology

Want to change ideology? Use magnets to generate electric current in the brain. Scientists from the University of New York applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the part of the brain involved in detecting and solving problems. They found that exposure altered both religious perceptions and prejudice. After exposure, participants were less likely to believe in God and were less concerned about immigration. (Express, 15.10.15.)

Hot kitchen

Soon you won’t need to stand close to the oven to be in a hotspot in your kitchen. Hoover has created a range of kitchen appliances that are wireless hotspots themselves. The appliances use radiofrequency radiation to communicate information to and from a house’s smart meter and the owner’s wireless devices.

‘Stay in touch with your home, wherever you are?’ says the company’s website. We wonder why anyone would want to! (http://hooverwizard.com/)

Teens

How much time do teenagers spend using smart phones?

To answer this question, research on 263 primary and secondary school students in Hungary, showed that the average girl used her smart phone for five and a half hours a day, while the average boy spent three and a half hours on the device.

Smart phone use was higher for 16-year-olds, who spent six and a half hours using it.

Heavy users aged 17 to 19, tended to have higher levels of impulsiveness, anxiety, depression, attention deficit and somatic problems. (Körmendi, A, Psychiatr Hung 30(3):297-302, 2015.)