Advances in Electromagnetic Fields in Living Systems Health Effects of Cell Phone Radiation Volume 5
Advances in Electromagnetic Fields in Living Systems Health Effects of Cell Phone Radiation Volume 5 Edited by James C. Lin University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA
James C. Lin University of Illinois Chicago, IL 60607-7053 USA ISBN 978-0-387-92733-6 e-isbn 978-0-387-92736-7 DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-92736-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009929205 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface to Volume 5 While the objective of the fifth volume in the series on Advances in Electromagnetic Fields in Living Systems remains the same as previous volumes, the editorial approach for this volume is to focus on a portion of the nonionizing electromagnetic radiation spectrum and a particular set of applications, namely, radio frequency (RF) and microwave and their use in cellular mobile communication devices and systems. This emphasis has prompted the insertion of the subtitle for this volume: Health Effects of Cell Phone Radiation. It is recommended that readers who desire a more fundamental understanding of RF electromagnetic interaction with biological systems examine chapters on related subjects in previous volumes of this series. The popularity and rapid deployment of wireless communication technology has led to increasing numbers of new devices and systems that emit RF electromagnetic energy. It has resulted in large numbers of individuals at the workplace or in the general public being exposed to RF fields. In most cases, the RF sources are in close proximity to the human body. The increased exposures at the workplace or in daily life have prompted the need for further research to evaluate RF safety and health implications. It is estimated that more than 3.5 billion people have access to cellular mobile telephones nearly half of the world population, at present. Indeed, at the current rate of growth more of the world s population will have access to mobile phone services than to electricity. However, exposure to RF electromagnetic fields is not limited to mobile or wireless communication; widespread applications of RF and microwave energy are found in RF article identification and surveillance, inductive heating devices and appliances, adaptive vehicular cruise control, advanced magnetic resonance imaging, on-body biomedical sensing and interrogation, novel active and passive security and detection technology, and proposed digital living network applications. Given the technological, regulatory, and marketing challenges, the timing of the introduction or deployment of many new applications is somewhat uncertain. It should be noted that the experience of the cellular mobile telephone v
vi Preface to Volume 5 industry indicates that once new technology is deployed, the adoption rate can easily explode. While it takes advanced technology to develop a product, the availability of low-price, high-quality, and high-performance components from around the world brings down the cost of a new product through large-scale production. Without a doubt, the total level of human exposure will rise because of the superposition of new and existing sources. There is a real need for reliable scientific answers on health effects associated with exposures resulting from widespread use of RF electromagnetic fields in new and existing devices and systems. The biological effects and health implications of RF and microwave radiation associated with cellular mobile telephones and related wireless systems and devices have become a focus of international scientific interest and world-wide public concern, and show no sign of relenting soon. Although our knowledge regarding the biological effects of RF and microwave radiation has increased considerably, the scientific evidence on health effects of RF and microwave radiation associated with these wireless devices is still tentative. The uncertainties persist, in part, because of the limited number and scope of studies that have been conducted to date. Aside from the lack of a scientific consensus on experimental studies that provide clear evidence either refuting or supporting a health effect, there is also uncertainty in epidemiological studies on the cancer induction or promotion potential of RF radiation from cell or mobile phones. One concern has been that an established effect from wireless radiation, even small, could have a considerable impact in terms of public health. Chapters in this volume provide an updated account of recent research results on the potential health risks and discuss the biological effects of RF and microwave radiation from cellular mobile and wireless personal communication devices and systems. The line-up of articles for this volume is organized along the hierarchical chain of cells, animals, and humans, and concludes with a chapter on characterization of the physical interactions and consideration of guidelines to ensure safe human exposure to RF and microwave fields employed for wireless communications. Specifically, this volume begins with a chapter summarizing the cellular effects of RF fields induced by the use of cell phones and their base stations. Studies on the effects of RF fields on cells in vitro are classified into two main categories: (1) genotoxic and (2) nongenotoxic effects. The genotoxic effects include DNA strand breaks, micronucleus formation, mutation, and chromosomal aberration, that is, changes involving damage to DNA. The nongenotoxic effects described include changes in cellular function, such as cell proliferation, cellular signal transduction, and gene expression (mrna and protein). In common usages, the source of RF radiation from cell phones is located in close proximity to the human head or body. Thus, a particular area of interest is tumorigenesis in the brain tumors that start in the brain including the malignant astrocytoma and glioblastoma multiforme. The second chapter provides an assessment of recent research results on the carcinogenic potential of RF radiation from cellular mobile and personal communication devices. Specifically, the topics included are experimental studies involving brain and other cancer induction and promotion, and long-term survival of laboratory mice and rats exposed to various types of cell phone RF fields.
Preface to Volume 5 vii The observational and laboratory studies conducted on humans form the subjects of the four chapters that follow. The designs and results of published epidemiological studies on users exposed to cell phone-emitted RF radiation and risk of cancer are described in Chap. 3, which also discusses the overall body of evidence regarding a potential association. It starts with a description of published studies of risk of intracranial tumors (glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma), and then proceeds to studies of other types of neoplasm. The next chapter reviews the current research designed to examine some of the possible interactions of cell phone electromagnetic fields with human cognitive behavior. Cognition is a complex topic that involves neurophysiology and its effects on behavior such as responsiveness or decrease in choice reaction time of human volunteers. This chapter considers the question whether there is a plausible link between physiological effects and cognitive changes. The published literature suggests that the research is of variable quality and the results are inconsistent, although there is a trend toward improved quality with better experimental design and careful execution. This is followed by a chapter that summarizes hypersensitivity reported to be caused by exposure to RF electromagnetic fields emitted from cellular telephones and cell phone base stations. A particularly vexing challenge in studying this phenomenon is that the symptoms reported by electromagnetically hypersensitive individuals, such as headache and fatigue, are common and nonspecific: they may have many causes. The published laboratory research such as provocation experiments, to date, on electromagnetic hypersensitivity and subjective symptoms from exposures to cell phone fields are very limited. Nevertheless, the evidence now available suggests that while the reported hypersensitivity and subjective symptoms may be real, the question as to whether they are associated with cell phone use must await more comprehensive studies. The situation concerning occupationally exposed populations is the last of the four chapters on human subjects. The protection of workers exposed to RF energy radiating sources has begun to attract global attention. Assessment of the risk and protection afforded workers from exposure to different sources may soon become an issue. This paper highlights occupational exposures in connection with wireless communication handheld phones and base station antennas. It is worthy of note that occupational exposures, where there is a possibility of exceeding international guidelines, occur only in work environments close to mobile phone base stations. An important task in assessing the health and safety of RF exposure from wireless communication devices and systems is the determination of electromagnetic fields and absorbed energy in biological tissues. This volume concludes with a final chapter devoted to a comprehensive summary of the dosimetric investigations and the well known biological effect resulting from either partial-body or whole-body exposures, SAR-induced temperature rises in humans. The descriptions include SAR distributions and peak temperature elevations, their derivation and computation, and implications for guidelines designed to limit human exposure in the wireless communication frequency band. It is hoped that they will serve as a common ground for a better understanding of human exposure to the cellular mobile telephone radiations.
viii Preface to Volume 5 In closing, I wish to pay special tribute to the authors for their tremendous contributions and to the anonymous reviewers for their exceptional advice, which has been an enormous aid in finalizing chapters in this volume. James C. Lin Chicago
Contents Cellular Biology Aspects of Mobile Phone Radiation... 1 Junji Miyakoshi Carcinogenic Effect of Wireless Communication Radiation in Rodents... 35 James C. Lin Epidemiological Studies of Cellular Telephone Use and Risk of Cancer... 83 Minouk J. Schoemaker and Anthony J. Swerdlow Cognitive Effects of Electromagnetic Fields in Humans... 133 Alan W. Preece Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity... 167 Norbert Leitgeb Occupational Exposure in Wireless Communication... 199 Kjell Hansson Mild and Jonna Wilén Dosimetry and Temperature Aspects of Mobile-Phone Exposures... 221 Paolo Bernardi, Stefano Pisa, Marta Cavagnaro, Emanuel Piuzzi, and James C. Lin Index... 277 ix
Contributors Paolo Bernardi Department of Electronic Engineering, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy Marta Cavagnaro Department of Electronic Engineering, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy Norbert Leitgeb Institute of Health Care Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria James C. Lin Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Kjell Hansson Mild Department of Radiation Physics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden Junji Miyakoshi Department of Radiological Life Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Japan Stefano Pisa Department of Electronic Engineering, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy Emanuel Piuzzi Department of Electronic Engineering, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy xi
xii Contributors Alan W. Preece Bristol Oncology Centre, Bristol, UK Minouk J. Schoemaker Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK Anthony J. Swerdlow Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK Jonna Wilén Department of Radiation Physics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden