Effect of low frequency modulated microwave exposure on human EEG: individual sensitivity.
Hinrikus H, Bachmann M, Lass J, Karai D, Tuulik V. · 2008
View Original AbstractMicrowave radiation at levels below current safety limits altered brain activity in up to 31% of exposed individuals.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed 66 healthy volunteers to low-level microwave radiation at various frequencies and measured their brain activity using EEG. They found that microwave exposure increased brain energy levels, with 13-31% of subjects showing significant changes in their brain wave patterns depending on the frequency used. The study demonstrates that microwave radiation can alter normal brain function even at exposure levels considered safe by current standards.
Why This Matters
This research provides compelling evidence that microwave radiation directly affects brain activity in humans, even at relatively low exposure levels. The SAR of 0.303 W/kg used in this study is well below the 2 W/kg limit set by many regulatory agencies, yet still produced measurable changes in brain wave patterns. What makes this study particularly significant is its focus on individual sensitivity - showing that people respond differently to the same EMF exposure, with some individuals being far more susceptible than others. The science demonstrates that our current safety standards, which assume uniform biological responses, may not adequately protect the most sensitive members of our population. This adds to the growing body of evidence showing biological effects from EMF exposure occur at levels far below what regulators consider harmful.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.303 W/kg
- Power Density
- 0.16 µW/m²
- Source/Device
- 450 MHz modulated at 7 Hz, 14 and 21 Hz, 40 and 70 Hz, 217 and 1000 Hz
- Exposure Duration
- Ten cycles of the exposure (1 min off and 1 min on)
Exposure Context
This study used 0.16 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 16Mx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 266.7Kx 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
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of modulated microwave exposure on human EEG of individual subjects.
The experiments were carried out on four different groups of healthy volunteers. The 450 MHz microwa...
Our results showed that microwave exposure increased the EEG energy. Relative changes in the EEG bet...
Show BibTeX
@article{h_2008_effect_of_low_frequency_1024,
author = {Hinrikus H and Bachmann M and Lass J and Karai D and Tuulik V.},
title = {Effect of low frequency modulated microwave exposure on human EEG: individual sensitivity.},
year = {2008},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18452168/},
}