Health Implications of Electromagnetic Fields, Mechanisms of Action, and Research Needs

Table 3

Studies on the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of electromagnetic fields.

EMF characteristics	Study group	Method	Study outcome	Reference
7 mT 50 Hz MF for 3 h, ferrous chloride (FeCl2, 10 g/mL), melatonin (0.5 or 1.0 mM)	Rat peripheral blood lymphocytes	Alkaline comet assay	Significant DNA damage only after simultaneous exposure to FeCl2 and MF, melatonin ameliorates the effect.	[64]
1.748 GHz, either; CW or phase only modulated wave GMSK* for 15 min. Maximum SAR = 5 W/kg	Human peripheral blood lymphocytes cultures	Cytokinesis block MN Assay and proliferation index	Statistically significant rise in MN frequency following exposure to phase modulated wave.	[67]
60 Hz MF at 0.01 mT for 24 h and 48 h	Male Sprague Dawley rats	Microgel electrophoresis; assay	Significantly increased single and double DNA strand breaks, prolonged 48-hour exposure resulted in a larger increase.	[33]
847.74 MHz CDMA^†, 835.62 MHz FDMA^‡, 813.56 MHz 836.55 , 24 h	Molt-4 T lymphoblastoid cells	Single cell gel electrophoresis and annexin V affinity assay	No DNA damage or apoptosis at any frequency, modulation or exposure time.	[7]
MW frequency ranging from 800 to 2000 MHz.	MP users and age, sex matched controls	Comet assay & MN assay	Significantly elevated comet tail lengths and MN frequency in MP users	[74]
980, 950 MHz, 200 KHz modulation,; 5 w and 500 ppm toluene applied for two weeks.	Male bulb/c; mice	MN assay on lymphocytes	MW radiation in; combination with toluene produced significant cytogenetic effects but not alone	[13]
UHF^∣∣-EMF (600 mWpeak; 834 MHz; 26.8–40 V/m; vertical polarization); Irradiation from 5.30 pm to 2.00 am for 8.30 h/day, since day of sperm detection until offspring birth.	Adult pregnant; Wistar rats only for irradiation and their offspring for study	MN assay, activity of antioxidant enzymes, quantified total sulfhydryl content, protein carbonyl, thiobarbituric acid reactive species, and total nonenzymatic antioxidant defense	Significant rise in MN frequency, no difference in oxidative stress parameters in offspring blood and liver	[72]
RF-EMF, SAR = 1.3 W/kg	Small area of fore arm s skin in 10 female volunteers	Collection of punch biopsies from exposed and nonexposed areas of skin. Protein extraction by 2-DE and protein expression changes analyzed using PDQuest software.	Radiation exposures from MPs have also been suggested to affect protein expression in human skin samples	[75]
MP radiation	85 MP users and 24 nonusers	MN assay on buccal mucosa epithelial cells	Significant rise in MN frequency and positive correlation with duration of use	[76]
915 MHz, 1 h/day for 2 weeks at 2.4 W/m^2, whole body average SAR-0.6 W/kg	Wistar rats	Detection of DNA alteration in peripheral leukocytes by standard and Fpg^# modified comet assay	Oxidative stress could be the likely cause of increased DNA damage in exposed group	[71]
2.45 GHz, 2 h/day for 35 days to 0.34 mW/cm^2 power density, whole body SAR = 0.11 W/Kg.	Male wistar rats, control and exposed group	Double strand DNA damage by microgel electrophoresis, antioxidant enzymes, and histone kinase estimation in brain cells	Significant elevation in comet head, tail length, and tail movement, decrease in GPx^1, SOD^2, and histone kinase, and increase in catalase	[31]
Pulsed MW from 3 GHz, 5.5 GHz and 9.4 GHz Marine RADAR	Marine RADAR operators	Comet assay, MN assay, GSH^3, and MDA^4 estimation	Significant changes found in comet and MN assay parameters indicating cytogenetic disruptions with dropped GSH levels and increased MDA levels in exposed groups	[1]

*GMSK: Gaussian minimum shift keying,^†CDMA: code division multiple access, ^‡FDMA: frequency division multiple access, iDEN: integrated digital enhanced network, TDMA: time division multiple access, ^∣∣UHF: ultrahigh frequency, ^#Fpg: formamidopyrimidine DNA-glycosylase, ¹GPx: glutathione peroxidise, ²SOD: superoxide dismutase, ³GSH: glutathione, and ⁴MDA: malondialdehyde.