Experimental Studies with Animals

In regard to in vivo animal studies, one of the most significant RF effects to be reported is disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This was reported in small laboratory animals in less than 30% of reviewed studies. However, most well controlled studies have not reported these effects and it seems that the positive results could be explained more simply by uncontrolled effects of heating. Further, the translation of such results to human beings, with entirely different cranial geometries and blood flow, is very doubtful.

The induction and promotion of tumors or blood neoplasms by RF exposure in animals as well as the appearance of cellular molecular predecessors of tumorigenesis, etc. has also been investigated. Despite using RF exposures, measured as specific absorption rates (SARs), far above those that people are normally exposed to, and in some cases exposures for the duration of the animal’s lifetime, about 93% of in vivo studies published since 1990 have shown no significant short or long-term effects. Further, the average survival of irradiated groups of animals was not affected in some 96% of studies.

No convincing evidence has been presented for RF acute or chronic effects of RF on other physiological and biochemical parameters in animals. Thus, the general conclusion, after more than 20 years of in vivo studies, is that no consistent or important effects of RF could be demonstrated in intact animals below international safety standards. There seems to be no important pathophysiological effect of RF fields, apart from thermal effects caused by exposure to fields many times larger than those encountered in our living and working environments.

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