Noninvasive Assessment of Metabolic Effects of Exposure to 900 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Djungarian Hamsters ( Phodopus sungorus).
Taberski K, Klose M, Grote K, El Ouardi A, Streckert J, Hansen VW, Lerchl A · 2014
View Original AbstractHigh-level cell phone radiation altered hamsters' metabolism and food intake, suggesting EMF exposure affects basic energy processing in mammals.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed hamsters to 900 MHz electromagnetic fields (similar to 2G cell phone signals) at different power levels for one week each to study metabolic changes. At the highest exposure level (4 W/kg), hamsters showed reduced daytime metabolism, lower food consumption, and slightly elevated skin temperature, even though their core body temperature remained stable. This suggests that high-level radiofrequency exposure can alter basic metabolic processes in mammals.
Why This Matters
This study reveals something important that regulatory agencies rarely discuss: EMF exposure doesn't just potentially cause heating effects, it can fundamentally alter how our bodies process energy. The 4 W/kg exposure level that produced metabolic changes is well above current safety limits (2 W/kg for the general public), but the fact that biological systems respond by reducing metabolism to maintain thermal balance suggests our bodies recognize RF-EMF as a physiological stressor. What makes this research particularly valuable is its sophisticated methodology - the hamsters served as their own controls, and researchers measured multiple metabolic markers continuously rather than relying on single endpoints. The finding that metabolism decreased during daytime exposure while core temperature remained constant indicates the body was actively compensating for the RF energy input. This challenges the simplistic 'thermal-only' model that underlies current safety standards and suggests we need to consider metabolic disruption as a potential mechanism of EMF biological effects.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0 , 0.08, 0.4 or 4 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 900 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 1 week
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
Sixteen male Djungarian hamsters, serving as their own controls, were individually exposed to RF-EMF (900 MHz, GSM modulation) at 0 (sham), 0.08, 0.4 or 4 W/kg specific absorption rate (SAR) in specially constructed rectangular waveguides.
Exposure duration was one week per condition, followed by one week without exposure. Once per day, t...
Only at the highest SAR level were the following effects observed: fur temperatures were elevated by...
The results demonstrate the usefulness of our methods for experiments dealing with metabolic effects of RF-EMF exposure in rodents. They also confirm the assumption that even though the metabolism is reduced at high SAR levels, the body core temperature is being kept constant by the energy uptake from the RF-EMF exposure which is able to physiologically compensate for the reduced metabolism.
Show BibTeX
@article{k_2014_noninvasive_assessment_of_metabolic_1348,
author = {Taberski K and Klose M and Grote K and El Ouardi A and Streckert J and Hansen VW and Lerchl A},
title = {Noninvasive Assessment of Metabolic Effects of Exposure to 900 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Djungarian Hamsters ( Phodopus sungorus).},
year = {2014},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24844649/},
}