Reduced growth of soybean seedlings after exposure to weak microwave radiation from GSM 900 mobile phone and base station.
Malka N. Halgamuge, See Kye Yak and Jacob L. Eberhardt · 2015
View Original AbstractWireless radiation disrupted plant growth at levels similar to cell tower exposure, suggesting EMF affects basic biological processes.
Plain English Summary
Scientists exposed soybean seedlings to 900 MHz cell phone radiation at various power levels. Even extremely weak signals similar to cell tower emissions reduced plant growth in specific parts of the seedlings, suggesting wireless radiation may disrupt biological processes in living organisms.
Why This Matters
This study adds important evidence to our understanding of how wireless radiation affects living systems at the cellular level. The researchers found growth disruption in soybean seedlings at field strengths as low as 0.56 V/m, which is comparable to radiation levels you might encounter near cell towers in everyday environments. What makes this particularly significant is that plants don't have nervous systems or the complex biological mechanisms that industry often claims are necessary for EMF effects to occur. The fact that even simple plant growth processes can be disrupted by wireless radiation suggests these effects operate at a fundamental cellular level. The dose-dependent responses and the different effects from pulsed versus continuous wave radiation also demonstrate that it's not just about heating effects, but about how biological systems respond to the information-carrying characteristics of these signals.
Exposure Details
- Electric Field
- 5.7 and 41 V/m
- Source/Device
- 900 MHz Mobile Phone
- Exposure Duration
- 2 h
Exposure Context
This study used 5.7 and 41 V/m for electric fields:
- 19x 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.
Study Details
The aim of this work was to study possible effects of environmental radiation pollution on plants.
The association between cellular telephone (short duration, higher amplitude) and base station (long...
The exposure to higher amplitude (41 V m(-1)) GSM radiation resulted in diminished outgrowth of the ...
Our findings indicate that the observed effects were significantly dependent on field strength as well as amplitude modulation of the applied field.
Show BibTeX
@article{halgamuge_2015_reduced_growth_of_soybean_1175,
author = {Malka N. Halgamuge and See Kye Yak and Jacob L. Eberhardt},
title = {Reduced growth of soybean seedlings after exposure to weak microwave radiation from GSM 900 mobile phone and base station.},
year = {2015},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25644316/},
}