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Symptoms & Sensitivity

Hypersensitivity to RF fields emitted from CDMA cellular phones: a provocation study.

No Effects Found

Nam KC, Lee JH, Noh HW, Cha EJ, Kim NH, Kim DW. · 2009

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People claiming electromagnetic sensitivity couldn't detect cell phone radiation any better than controls, and neither group showed physical effects from 30-minute exposure.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers tested 18 people who claimed to be sensitive to electromagnetic fields (called EHS or electromagnetic hypersensitivity) against 19 people without such sensitivity, exposing both groups to real and fake cell phone radiation for 30 minutes. Neither group showed any measurable physical changes or symptoms from the actual radiation exposure, and the supposedly sensitive people couldn't tell the difference between real and fake exposure any better than the control group.

Study Details

In this study, two volunteer groups of 18 self-reported EHS and 19 non-EHS persons were tested for both sham and real RF exposure from CDMA cellular phones with a 300 mW maximum exposure that lasted half an hour.

We investigated not only the physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiration rate, and hear...

In conclusion, RF exposure did not have any effects on physiological parameters or subjective symptoms in either group. As for EMF perception, there was no evidence that the EHS group better perceived EMF than the non-EHS group.

Cite This Study
Nam KC, Lee JH, Noh HW, Cha EJ, Kim NH, Kim DW. (2009). Hypersensitivity to RF fields emitted from CDMA cellular phones: a provocation study. Bioelectromagnetics. 30(8):641-650, 2009.
Show BibTeX
@article{kc_2009_hypersensitivity_to_rf_fields_3267,
  author = {Nam KC and Lee JH and Noh HW and Cha EJ and Kim NH and Kim DW.},
  title = {Hypersensitivity to RF fields emitted from CDMA cellular phones: a provocation study.},
  year = {2009},
  doi = {10.1002/bem.20518},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20518},
}
DOI: 10.1002/bem.20518

Cited By (46 papers)

Quick Questions About This Study

No, a 2009 study found that 18 people claiming electromagnetic hypersensitivity could not distinguish between real and fake CDMA phone radiation any better than control subjects. The supposedly sensitive group showed no superior ability to detect actual electromagnetic field exposure during 30-minute testing sessions.
No, researchers found that 30 minutes of CDMA cellular phone radiation exposure caused no measurable physical changes or symptoms in either electromagnetically sensitive people or control subjects. Neither group experienced any physiological effects from the actual radiation during controlled testing conditions.
Testing with CDMA cellular phones revealed that electromagnetic hypersensitivity claims lack accuracy. People claiming sensitivity performed no better than controls at detecting real versus fake radiation exposure, suggesting their reported symptoms may not be directly caused by electromagnetic fields.
The 2009 study showed that electromagnetically sensitive people responded similarly to both real and fake CDMA phone radiation exposure. This indicates their symptoms may be triggered by psychological factors rather than actual electromagnetic fields, since they couldn't distinguish between genuine and sham exposures.
No, CDMA cellular phone radiation had no effects on physiological parameters like heart rate or blood pressure in either electromagnetically sensitive individuals or control subjects. The study found no measurable physical changes during 30 minutes of controlled radiation exposure testing.