Exposure to radiofrequency radiation induces oxidative stress in duckweed Lemna minor L.
Tkalec M, Malarić K, Pevalek-Kozlina B. · 2007
View Original AbstractRadiofrequency radiation at cell phone frequencies triggered cellular damage in plants through oxidative stress, with effects varying by frequency.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed duckweed plants to cell phone-like radiofrequency radiation at 400 and 900 MHz frequencies. The exposure caused oxidative stress, where harmful molecules damage plant cells by overwhelming natural defenses. Higher frequency radiation generally produced more severe cellular damage than lower frequencies.
Why This Matters
This study adds to the growing body of evidence that radiofrequency radiation can trigger oxidative stress in living organisms, even at non-thermal levels that don't cause heating. What makes this research particularly significant is that it demonstrates frequency-dependent effects - 900 MHz (close to older cell phone frequencies) caused more oxidative damage than 400 MHz across most exposure conditions. The science demonstrates that biological systems can respond to RF fields in ways that current safety standards, which only consider heating effects, don't account for. While this study used duckweed rather than human cells, oxidative stress is a fundamental biological process that occurs across species. The reality is that plants and animals share many basic cellular mechanisms, making these findings relevant to understanding potential human health impacts from everyday RF exposures.
Exposure Details
- Electric Field
- 10, 23, 41 and 120 V/m
- Source/Device
- 400 and 900 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- 2 h
Exposure Context
This study used 10, 23, 41 and 120 V/m for electric fields:
- 33.3x 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 the present work was to investigate the physiological responses of the plant Lemna minor after exposure to radiofrequency EMFs, and in particular, to clarify the possible role of oxidative stress in the observed effects.
Duckweed was exposed for 2 h to EMFs of 400 and 900 MHz at field strengths of 10, 23, 41 and 120 V m...
At 400 MHz, lipid peroxidation and H2O2 content were significantly enhanced in duckweed exposed to E...
Our results showed that non-thermal exposure to investigated radiofrequency fields induced oxidative stress in duckweed as well as unspecific stress responses, especially of antioxidative enzymes. However, the observed effects markedly depended on the field frequencies applied as well as on other exposure parameters (strength, modulation and exposure time). Enhanced lipid peroxidation and H2O2 content accompanied by diminished antioxidative enzymes activity caused by exposure to investigated EMFs, especially at 900 MHz, indicate that oxidative stress could partly be due to changed activities of antioxidative enzymes.
Show BibTeX
@article{m_2007_exposure_to_radiofrequency_radiation_574,
author = {Tkalec M and Malarić K and Pevalek-Kozlina B.},
title = {Exposure to radiofrequency radiation induces oxidative stress in duckweed Lemna minor L.},
year = {2007},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969707008017},
}