In vitro study on effect of cell phone radiation using cytogenetic endpoints

Abstract

The health concerns have been raised following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephones throughout the world. Human exposures to Radiofrequency (RF) - Electromagnetic Force (EMF) i.e. frequency ranges from 30 kHz - 300 GHz which falls under non-ionizing radiation can occur from use of personal devices (e.g., mobile telephones, cordless phones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and amateur radios), from occupational sources (e.g., high frequency dielectric and induction heaters, and high powered pulsed radars), and from environmental sources (e.g., mobile phone base stations, broadcast antennas, and medical applications). Cell phone radiation being the nonionizing radiation is considered to cause genomic damage when used for longer time duration. Thus this investigation had been taken, with the motive to find out whether mobile phone radiations can cause any invivo effect on the frequency of micronucleated exfoliated cells in the exposed subjects and conducting in vitro analysis of short term peripheral lymphocytes cultures for chromosomal aberrations. The other part of the study was planned to measure ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) formation from salivary samples, as the levels of ROS increases as a mechanism of action of radiofrequency radiations. This study shows that there is a significant increase in genomic damage as compared to controls when all the three parameters are analyzed. However, in light of the IARC report and our study, it is appropriate to summarize that cell phone use needs to be restricted to current guidelines.