Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation on Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells.
Gläser K, Rohland M, Kleine-Ostmann T, Schrader T, Stopper H, Hintzsche H. · 2016
View Original AbstractBlood stem cells showed no harmful effects from cell phone radiation up to 4 W/kg SAR, even showing reduced DNA damage.
Plain English Summary
German researchers exposed human blood stem cells (the cells that create all blood cells in your body) to cell phone radiation at three different frequencies for up to 66 hours. They tested multiple biological endpoints including DNA damage, cell death, and oxidative stress. Surprisingly, they found that GSM radiation actually caused a small decrease in DNA damage compared to unexposed cells, while showing no other significant effects.
Why This Matters
This study stands out in the EMF research landscape because it's the first to examine how cell phone radiation affects human hematopoietic stem cells, which are crucial for maintaining our blood and immune systems. The finding that GSM radiation decreased DNA damage is unexpected and contradicts the typical narrative that RF radiation increases cellular damage. However, we should interpret this cautiously. The exposure levels tested (up to 4 W/kg SAR) are significantly higher than typical phone use (around 1.6 W/kg maximum), and the controlled laboratory conditions don't reflect real-world exposure patterns. While this study suggests these particular stem cells may be relatively resistant to RF effects, it represents just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The broader body of research on RF radiation and cellular effects shows mixed results, with numerous studies documenting DNA damage and other biological changes at similar exposure levels.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0 to 4 W/kg
- Source/Device
- GSM (900 MHz), UMTS (1,950 MHz) and LTE (2,535 MHz)
- Exposure Duration
- short period (4 h) and a long period (20 h/66 h)
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The goal of this study was to elucidate the extent to which cells of the hematopoietic system, particularly human hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), were affected by mobile phone radiation.
We irradiated HSC and HL-60 cells at frequencies used in the major technologies, GSM (900 MHz), UMTS...
In all but one of these end points, we detected no clear effect of mobile phone radiation; the only ...
To our knowledge, this is the first published study in which putative effects (e.g., genotoxicity or influence on apoptosis rate) of radiofrequency radiation were investigated in HSC. Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields did not affect cells of the hematopoietic system, in particular HSC, under the given experimental conditions.
Show BibTeX
@article{k_2016_effect_of_radiofrequency_radiation_1000,
author = {Gläser K and Rohland M and Kleine-Ostmann T and Schrader T and Stopper H and Hintzsche H.},
title = {Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation on Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells.},
year = {2016},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27710704/},
}