The effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat
Daniels WM, Pitout IL, Afullo TJ, Mabandla MV · 2009
View Original AbstractMobile phone-level EMF exposure during early development caused behavioral changes and elevated stress hormones in rats, suggesting potential developmental impacts.
Plain English Summary
Young rats exposed to cell phone radiation (840 MHz) for three hours daily showed subtle behavioral changes including reduced activity and increased grooming, despite normal memory and brain structure. This suggests early EMF exposure may affect brain function in ways not immediately apparent.
Why This Matters
This study adds to growing evidence that EMF exposure during critical developmental periods can have lasting neurological effects, even when no obvious brain damage occurs. The 840 MHz frequency and power levels used here are well within the range of everyday mobile phone emissions that children encounter regularly. What's particularly concerning is that these behavioral changes emerged from exposure during the first two weeks of life - a period of rapid brain development when neural circuits are being established. The subtle nature of these effects - increased grooming, reduced activity, elevated stress hormones - mirrors the kind of behavioral changes parents and teachers increasingly report in children today. While this study alone doesn't prove causation, it reinforces the growing body of research suggesting we should be far more cautious about EMF exposure during pregnancy and early childhood.
Exposure Details
- Power Density
- 0.000006 µW/m²
- Electric Field
- 0.00895 V/m
- Source/Device
- 840 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- continuous for 3 hr/day from day 2 to day 14 after birth
Exposure Context
This study used 0.000006 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 600x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 10x above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 0.0006 μW/cm²
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
To study the effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat.
In a study by Salford et al. (Environ Health Perspect 111:881-883, 2003) the authors demonstrated th...
We found no significant differences in the spatial memory test, and morphological assessment of the ...
These findings suggested that EMR exposure may lead to abnormal brain functioning
Show BibTeX
@article{wm_2009_the_effect_of_electromagnetic_84,
author = {Daniels WM and Pitout IL and Afullo TJ and Mabandla MV},
title = {The effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat},
year = {2009},
doi = {10.1007/s11011-009-9164-3},
url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11011-009-9164-3},
}