Effects of short‐and long‐term pulsed radiofrequency electromagnetic fields on night sleep and cognitive functions in healthy subjects

With the number of cellular phone users rapidly increasing, there is a considerable amount of public concern regarding the effects that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from cellular phones have on health. People with self-attributed electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) complain of subjective symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, and memory loss, and attribute these symptoms to radio frequency (RF) radiation from cellular phones and/or base stations. However, EHS is difficult to diagnose because it relies on a person's subjective judgment. Various provocation studies have been conducted on EHS caused by Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) phones in which heart rate and blood pressure or subjective symptoms were investigated. However, there have been few sham-controlled provocation studies on EHS with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) phones where physiological parameters, subjective symptoms, and perception of RF radiation for EHS and non-EHS groups were simultaneously investigated. 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 heart rate variability (HRV), but also various subjective symptoms and the perception of EMF. 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.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

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

Nam

Lee

Noh

et al. 2009

“…Research regarding the effects of mobile phone-like emissions on the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) has arguably been the most consistent to date, with a number of studies reporting increases in EEG spectral power in the alpha and spindle frequency ranges during non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep [Borbély et al, 1999;Huber et al, 2000Huber et al, , 2002Loughran et al, 2005;Regel et al, 2007]. However, overall conclusions regarding the presence of an effect remain difficult due to a similar number of studies failing to find any effects on the EEG during sleep Wagner et al, 1998Wagner et al, , 2000Hinrichs et al, 2005;Fritzer et al, 2007].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in the effects of mobile phone exposure on human sleep: Rethinking the problem

Loughran

McKenzie

Jackson

et al. 2011

Mobile phone exposure-related effects on the human electroencephalogram (EEG) have been shown during both waking and sleep states, albeit with slight differences in the frequency affected. This discrepancy, combined with studies that failed to find effects, has led many to conclude that no consistent effects exist. We hypothesised that these differences might partly be due to individual variability in response, and that mobile phone emissions may in fact have large but differential effects on human brain activity. Twenty volunteers from our previous study underwent an adaptation night followed by two experimental nights in which they were randomly exposed to two conditions (Active and Sham), followed by a full-night sleep episode. The EEG spectral power was increased in the sleep spindle frequency range in the first 30 min of non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep following Active exposure. This increase was more prominent in the participants that showed an increase in the original study. These results confirm previous findings of mobile phone-like emissions affecting the EEG during non-REM sleep. Importantly, this low-level effect was also shown to be sensitive to individual variability. Furthermore, this indicates that previous negative results are not strong evidence for a lack of an effect and, given the far-reaching implications of mobile phone research, we may need to rethink the interpretation of results and the manner in which research is conducted in this field.

“…The vast majority of these studies examined the effects of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)-like signals [Hamblin et al, 2006;Wilen et al, 2006;Fritzer et al, 2007;Haarala et al, 2007;Irlenbusch et al, 2007;Krause et al, 2007;Regel et al, 2007a,b;Barth et al, 2008;Cinel et al, 2008;Curcio et al, 2008;Kleinlogel et al, 2008;Luria et al, 2009;Wiholm et al, 2009], whereas only a few analysed the impact of Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access/3rd Generation Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (WCDMA/3G UMTS) handset signals on cognitive function [Schmid et al, 2005;Kleinlogel et al, 2008;Unterlechner et al, 2008].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies on the possible effects of RF-EMF of GSM mobile phones on cognition did not find any difference in performance measures between real and sham exposure [Hladky et al, 1999;Croft et al, 2002;Haarala et al, 2003Haarala et al, , 2004Haarala et al, , 2007Hinrichs and Heinze, 2004;Besset et al, 2005;Russo et al, 2006;Cinel et al, 2007Cinel et al, , 2008Fritzer et al, 2007;Irlenbusch et al, 2007;Curcio et al, 2008;Kleinlogel et al, 2008]. On the other hand, there are an almost equal number of studies reporting effects on cognitive functions, however, the effects are not consistent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Exposure times in the mentioned studies varied from a few minutes during performance [Freude et al, 2000] up to 2.5 h prior to the test session [Wiholm et al, 2009]. The longest exposure duration was 8 h, but in contrast to all other studies, exposure was applied during night sleep prior to the morning test session [Fritzer et al, 2007]. Furthermore, protocols vary in terms of point of time of exposure, i.e., exposure was either applied prior to or during performance tests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by GSM 900 and WCDMA mobile phones on cognitive function in young male subjects

Sauter¹,

Dorn²,

Bahr³

et al. 2010

Results of studies on the possible effects of electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones on cognitive functions are contradictory, therefore, possible effects of long-term (7 h 15 min) electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure to handset-like signals of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 900 and Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) on attention and working memory were studied. The sample comprised 30 healthy male subjects (mean ± SD: 25.3 ± 2.6 years), who were tested on nine study days in which they were exposed to three exposure conditions (sham, GSM 900 and WCDMA) in a randomly assigned and balanced order. All tests were presented twice (morning and afternoon) on each study day within a fixed timeframe. Univariate comparisons revealed significant changes when subjects were exposed to GSM 900 compared to sham, only in the vigilance test. In the WCDMA exposure condition, one parameter in the vigilance and one in the test on divided attention were altered compared to sham. Performance in the selective attention test and the n-back task was not affected by GSM 900 or WCDMA exposure. Time-of-day effects were evident for the tests on divided and selective attention, as well as for working memory. After correction for multiple testing, only time-of-day effects remained significant in two tests, resulting in faster reactions in the afternoon trials. The results of the present study do not provide any evidence of an EMF effect on human cognition, but they underline the necessity to control for time of day.