title: Does exposure to GSM 900 MHz mobile phone radiation affect short-term memory of elementary school students?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Now-a-days, children are exposed to mobile phone radiation at a very early age. We have previously shown that a large proportion of children in the city of Shiraz, Iran use mobile phones. Furthermore, we have indicated that the visual reaction time (VRT) of university students was significantly affected by a 10 min real/sham exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phone. We found that these exposures decreased the reaction time which might lead to a better response to different hazards. We have also revealed that occupational exposures to radar radiations decreased the reaction time in radar workers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether short-term exposure of elementary school students to radiofrequency (RF) radiation leads to changes in their reaction time and short-term memory.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 60 elementary school children ages ranging from 8 to 10 years studying at a public elementary school in Shiraz, Iran were enrolled in this study. Standardized computer-based tests of VRT and short-term memory (modified for children) were administered. The students were asked to perform some preliminary tests for orientation with the VRT test. After orientation, to reduce the random variation of measurements, each test was repeated ten times in both real and sham exposure phases. The time interval between the two subsequent sham and real exposure phases was 30 min.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean ± standard deviation reaction times after a 10 min talk period and after a 10 min sham exposure (switched off mobile) period were 249.0 ± 82.3 ms and 252.9 ± 68.2 ms (P = 0.629), respectively. On the other hand, the mean short-term memory scores after the talk and sham exposure periods were 1062.60 ± 305.39, and 1003.84 ± 339.68 (P = 0.030), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that short-term exposure of elementary school students to RF radiation leads to the better performance of their short-term memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Movvahedi
authors.affiliation: Standard Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tavakkoli-Golpayegani
authors.affiliation: Department of School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: S A R
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mortazavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haghani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Razi
authors.affiliation: The Center for Research on Protection against Ionizing and Nonionizing Radiation, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Shojaie-Fard
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mina
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mansourabadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.lastname: Nazari-Jahromi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Safari
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shokrpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran ; Department of Medical Physics and Medical Engineering, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: S M J
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mortazavi
keywords: Children; cognitive responses; elementary school students; global system for mobile communication; mobile phone; radiofrequency; reaction time; short-term memory