Mutagenic potential of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields

Abstract

The present study aims at determining the potential genetic damage of occupational exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF). The studied subjects are engineers and air traffic controllers exposed to radio frequency emitted from different instruments. Lymphocytes of exposed and control individuals were analyzed for structural and numerical chromosomal aberrations, sister chromatid exchanges, mitotic activity and cell kinetics. Cells with structural chromosomal aberrations were significantly increased in both engineers and air traffic controllers (p<0.001). Also, the number of aberrant cells with total numerical aberrations increased significantly in both exposed groups (p<0.001). Numerical aberrations were mainly hypodiploidy. The frequencies of SCEs in engineers and air traffic controllers were slightly increased over the control but this increase was not statistically significant. A decrease in mitotic activity was reported in EM field exposed engineers and air traffic controllers at statistically significant levels of p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively. Exposure to EM field did not affect the cell kinetics in engineers and air traffic controllers.