Health threat to mobile users: JNU study

An ongoing study on radiation from mobile towers and mobile phones at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has found that the exposure to radiation from mobile towers and mobile phones could have an adverse impact on male fertility and also pose health hazards by depleting the defence mechanism of cells.

Though these findings are based on experiments on male rats, Jitendra Behari, a professor in JNU's School of Environmental Sciences and lead researcher for the government-funded project, told The Hindu that the health implications were directly relevant to human beings too.

Prof. Behari and his team have been conducting tests on Wistar rats or lab rats, mainly focusing on two aspects of radiation — its effect on the reproductive system and on general health, particularly tumour promotion and genotoxic effects (causing damage to DNA). “We kept these rats in a simulated environment, creating similar levels of radiation as emitted by mobile towers and while using a mobile phone…and the results were alarming,” he disclosed.

“Chronic exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation [RF-EMW] caused double-strand DNA breaks in sperm cells. The tests showed that mobile radiation exposure can cause a statistically significant decrease in the sperm count and testes weight,” Prof. Behari explained.

Pointing towards similar tests by leading institutions in the West which showed almost identical results, Prof. Behari said the reports have concluded that RF-EMW from commercially available cell phones might affect the fertilising potential of sperms. “Other studies too have shown that use of cell phones adversely affects the quality of semen by decreasing sperm count, motility, viability and morphology, which might contribute to male infertility,” he added.

Similarly, talking about the impact of radiation exposure tests on general health, Prof. Behari said: “Human cells have their own set of antioxidant defence mechanisms to fight with free radical formation and to overcome the limit of damaging effects. Our studies have shown that microwave radiation may alter the level of antioxidant due to free radical formations.”