Mobile phone electromagnetic radiation activates MAPK signaling and regulates viability in Drosophila.
Lee KS, Choi JS, Hong SY, Son TH, Yu K. · 2008
View Original AbstractCell phone radiation at current safety limits activated stress responses in fruit flies, while higher levels caused brain cell death.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed fruit flies to cell phone radiation at two different intensities to see how it affected their survival and cellular responses. At the current safety limit (1.6 W/kg), most flies survived 30 hours of exposure, but at higher levels (4.0 W/kg), flies began dying after 12 hours. The radiation triggered different cellular stress pathways depending on the intensity, with higher levels causing brain cell death.
Why This Matters
This study provides compelling evidence that even current safety limits for cell phone radiation trigger measurable biological responses in living organisms. The researchers found that exposure at 1.6 W/kg, which is the ANSI safety standard, activated survival signaling pathways in fruit flies, while higher exposures activated cell death pathways and caused brain damage. What makes this particularly significant is that fruit flies share many fundamental cellular mechanisms with humans, making them a valuable model for understanding potential health effects. The fact that 'safe' exposure levels still triggered stress responses and activated specific signaling pathways suggests our current safety standards may not account for all biological effects. While we can't directly extrapolate from flies to humans, this research adds to the growing body of evidence that EMF exposure causes measurable biological changes at levels considered safe by regulatory agencies.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 1.6 and 4 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 835 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- continuous for 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 h
Exposure Context
This study used 1.6 and 4 W/kg for SAR (device absorption):
- 4x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.4 W/kg
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
In this report, we show biological effects of the mobile phone 835 MHz electromagnetic field (EMF) in the Drosophila model system.
When flies were exposed to the specific absorption rate (SAR) 1.6 W/kg, which is the proposed expos...
These findings demonstrate that the exposure limit on electromagnetic radiation proposed by ANSI triggered ERK‐survival signaling but the strong electromagnetic radiation activated JNK‐apoptotic signaling in Drosophila.
Show BibTeX
@article{ks_2008_mobile_phone_electromagnetic_radiation_120,
author = {Lee KS and Choi JS and Hong SY and Son TH and Yu K.},
title = {Mobile phone electromagnetic radiation activates MAPK signaling and regulates viability in Drosophila.},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1002/bem.20395},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20395},
}