Abstracto

Cell Phone Radiation and Genomic Damage: In Vitro Exposure and Assessment

Chinar Shah, Anu Nair, Mehul Naik, Sonal Bakshi

The health concerns have been raised following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephones throughout the world. According to the International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC), a part of World Health Organization (WHO) has designated cell phone radiation i.e. non-ionizing radiofrequency radiation as „Possible Human CarcinogenâÂ?Â? [Class 2B] in May, 2011. It is believed that the effect is caused because of the electromagnetic frequency generated by the radio frequency which couples with the human tissues which results in induced electric and magnetic fields that cause field distribution in the body. Thus, human body acts as an antenna that receives electromagnetic waves externally. Therefore, effect of radiofrequency radiation needs to be studied by examining the target tissues that are directly exposed to electromagnetic waves i.e. brain tissue, circulating blood, and facial muscles. In this study, circulating blood was taken as target tissue and subjected to cell phone radiation in vitro and following short term cultures metaphase chromosomes were analyzed for frequency of breakage. The results indicated significant increase in chromosomal damage at higher power level and longer exposure times