Effects of mobile phone radiation on reproduction and development in Drosophila melanogaster.
Weisbrot D, Lin H, Ye L, Blank M, Goodman R. · 2003
View Original AbstractMobile phone radiation at typical use levels triggered cellular stress responses and increased offspring in fruit flies, showing biological effects occur without heating.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed developing fruit flies to cell phone radiation at levels similar to phone use near your head. The radiation increased offspring numbers and triggered cellular stress responses, demonstrating that mobile phone signals can affect biological development even at non-heating power levels.
Why This Matters
This Columbia University study provides compelling evidence that mobile phone radiation affects biological systems at the cellular level, even at exposure levels similar to what your head receives during phone calls. The 1.4 W/kg SAR used in this study falls within the range of typical mobile phone emissions, making these findings directly relevant to human exposure. What makes this research particularly significant is the rapid cellular stress response the researchers documented - heat shock proteins increased within minutes of exposure, indicating the cells recognized the RF radiation as a stressor. The science demonstrates that these biological effects occur through non-thermal mechanisms, challenging the outdated assumption that only heating effects from EMF matter for health. While this study used fruit flies, the cellular stress pathways involved are conserved across species, suggesting similar responses could occur in human cells.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 1.4 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 900/1,900 MHz
Exposure Context
This study used 1.4 W/kg for SAR (device absorption):
- 3.5x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.4 W/kg
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 investigate Effects of mobile phone radiation on reproduction and development in Drosophila melanogaster.
In this report we examined the effects of a discontinuous radio frequency (RF) signal produced by a ...
As found earlier with low frequency exposures, the non-thermal radiation from the GSM mobile phone i...
The rapid induction of hsp70 within minutes, by a non-thermal stress, together with identified components of signal transduction pathways, provide sensitive and reliable biomarkers that could serve as the basis for realistic mobile phone safety guidelines.
Show BibTeX
@article{d_2003_effects_of_mobile_phone_1429,
author = {Weisbrot D and Lin H and Ye L and Blank M and Goodman R.},
title = {Effects of mobile phone radiation on reproduction and development in Drosophila melanogaster.},
year = {2003},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12682907/},
}