ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE RADIATION: A POTENTIAL BIOLOGICAL HAZARD?
William C. Milroy, Terence C. O'Grady, Eric T. Prince
Limited research exists on electromagnetic pulse biological effects despite their fundamentally different exposure patterns from continuous EMF.
Plain English Summary
This review examined the potential biological effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiation, which produces intense, brief bursts of electromagnetic energy. The author found limited data available on biological impacts, with most concern stemming from lack of research rather than documented harmful effects. The study called for more research to understand potential health risks from EMP exposure.
Why This Matters
This early review highlights a critical gap that persists today in EMF research - the tendency to focus on continuous exposures while ignoring pulsed radiation effects. Electromagnetic pulses deliver massive amounts of energy in microseconds, creating exposure scenarios fundamentally different from your cell phone or WiFi router. The reality is that pulsed EMF often produces stronger biological responses than continuous fields at the same average power levels. What makes this particularly relevant now is that modern wireless technology increasingly uses pulsed signals - from 5G beamforming to smart meter transmissions. The author's call for more research remains largely unheeded decades later, leaving us with insufficient safety data for these intense, brief exposures that are becoming more common in our technological landscape.
Finding
Initial animal studies of EMP effects were done by Hirsch and his colleagues who trained a group of white laboratory mice to run a maze using hunger as motivation. After reaching a certain performance level, the mice were placed under a pulser antenna array, in their maze, which was equipped with a solenoid operated starting gate. After the 600 KV/M pulse was triggered the mice were allowed to run the maze and were observed for any effects on their performance. It was found that there was a significant increase in the time it took the mice to run the maze and in some cases the animals returned to the starting box and refused to move. However, within an hour after the pulse the animals approached their preexposure performance rates and after several days were all seemingly unaffected in their performance.
In their words
“Initial animal studies of EMP effects were done by Hirsch and his colleagues who trained a group of white laboratory mice to run a maze using hunger as motivation. After reaching a certain performance level, the mice were placed under a pulser antenna array, in their maze, which was equipped with a solenoid operated starting gate. After the 600 KV/M pulse was triggered the mice were allowed to run the maze and were observed for any effects on their performance. It was found that there was a significant increase in the time it took the mice to run the maze and in some cases the animals returned to the starting box and refused to move. However, within an hour after the pulse the animals approached their preexposure performance rates and after several days were all seemingly unaffected in their performance.”
Figures from the Original Paper
Diagrams extracted from the original research document.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Show BibTeX
@article{electromagnetic_pulse_radiation_a_potential_biological_hazard__g3706,
author = {William C. Milroy and Terence C. O'Grady and Eric T. Prince},
title = {ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE RADIATION: A POTENTIAL BIOLOGICAL HAZARD?},
year = {n.d.},
}