Effects of RF-EMF Exposure from GSM Mobile Phones on Proliferation Rate of Human Adipose-derived Stem Cells: An In-vitro Study.
Shahbazi-Gahrouei D, Hashemi-Beni B, Ahmadi Z. · 2016
View Original AbstractMobile phone radiation significantly reduced stem cell growth after just 9 minutes daily exposure at typical usage levels.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed human fat-derived stem cells to radiation from GSM mobile phones (900 MHz frequency) for different durations over 5 days. They found that exposure for 9 minutes or longer per day significantly reduced the cells' ability to grow and multiply, while 6 minutes per day showed no effect. This suggests that even brief daily phone exposure can impair the regenerative cells your body uses for healing and tissue repair.
Why This Matters
This study reveals a concerning dose-response relationship between mobile phone radiation and stem cell function. The exposure level used (354.6 µW/cm²) is well within the range of what you experience during typical phone calls, yet it significantly impaired these critical regenerative cells after just 9 minutes of daily exposure. What makes this particularly significant is that adipose-derived stem cells play crucial roles in tissue repair, wound healing, and maintaining healthy organ function throughout your body. The fact that researchers observed clear biological effects at relatively low exposure levels adds to the growing body of evidence that current safety standards may not adequately protect cellular health. The reality is that most people exceed 9 minutes of phone use daily by a wide margin, often holding devices directly against their bodies where exposure levels are much higher than the 20-centimeter distance used in this study.
Exposure Details
- Power Density
- 0.3546 µW/m²
- Source/Device
- 900 MHz GSM mobile phones
- Exposure Duration
- 6 to 21 min/day for 5 days
Exposure Context
This study used 0.3546 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 35.5Mx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 591Kx above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 0.0006 μW/cm²
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
As the use of mobile phones is increasing, public concern about the harmful effects of radiation emitted by these devices is also growing. In addition, protection questions and biological effects are among growing concerns which have remained largely unanswered. Stem cells are useful models to assess the effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) on other cell lines. Stem cells are undifferentiated biological cells that can differentiate into specialized cells. Adipose tissue represents an abundant and accessible source of adult stem cells. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of GSM 900 MHz on growth and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue within the specific distance and intensity.
ADSCs were exposed to GSM mobile phones 900 MHz with intensity of 354.6 µW/cm2 square waves (217 Hz ...
The proliferation rates of human ADSCs in all exposure groups were significantly lower than control ...
The results show that 900 MHz RF signal radiation from antenna can reduce cell viability and proliferation rates of human ADSCs regarding the duration of exposure.
Show BibTeX
@article{d_2016_effects_of_rfemf_exposure_1320,
author = {Shahbazi-Gahrouei D and Hashemi-Beni B and Ahmadi Z.},
title = {Effects of RF-EMF Exposure from GSM Mobile Phones on Proliferation Rate of Human Adipose-derived Stem Cells: An In-vitro Study.},
year = {2016},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28144594/},
}