ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In recent years, by tremendous use of mobile phone telecommunication, a growing concern about the possible health hazards has increased greatly among public and scientists. The mobile phone exposure has been shown to have many effects upon the immune functions, stimulating hormones, mammalian brain, sperm motility and morphology, and neurological pathologies syndrome. The aim of this study was to find out the psychological and psychobiological reactions of the people who are living near mobile phone base transceiver stations (BTS) antenna, in Isfahan, Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study on 250 randomly selected inhabitants (133 women and 117 men) was performed in October 2012 till November 2012. The inhabitants were requested to complete a standardized questionnaire that focused on the relevant psychological and psychobiological reactions parameters. A computer program (SPSS version16.0, Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis using the Chi-square test with Yates correction. All the data were tested using a criterion level of p = 0.05. RESULTS: The results showed that most of the symptoms such as nausea, headache, dizziness, irritability, discomfort, nervousness, depression, sleep disturbance, memory loss and lowering of libido were statistically significant in the inhabitants living near the BTS antenna (<300 m distances) compared to those living far from the BTS antenna (>300 m). CONCLUSION: It is suggested that cellular phone BTS antenna should not be sited closer than 300 m to populations to minimize exposure of neighbors.
Subject(s)
Cell Phone/instrumentation , Electromagnetic Fields/adverse effects , Health , Adolescent , Adult , Cross-Sectional Studies , Environmental Exposure/adverse effects , Female , Humans , Iran , Male , Middle Aged , Stress, Psychological/etiology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young AdultABSTRACT
Ferritin is a macromolecule and is responsible for the long term iron storage function in human serum and plasma. Recent studies have highlighted the role of cell phone exposure on central nervous system, immune function and reproduction. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the human serum ferritin level could be interfered by the exposure to the 900 MHz GSM cell phones. Fifty human serum wells from 25 normal healthy donors were labeled with ruthenium to form a sandwich complex based on an immunoassay technique. All of them were placed into two batches, and the well heads in the first batch were exposed to 900 MHz exposure emitted from a speech mode cell phone (Nokia, Model 1202, India) for 30 min. Unexposed batch was served as the control sample under identical conditions and was compared with the exposed one in quantitative determination of ferritin using the Wilcoxon test with criterion level of P = 0.050. Human serum wells in the exposed batch showed a significant decrease in serum ferritin relative to the control batch (P = 0.029). The average ± SD ferritin level in the exposed batch was 84.94 ± 1.04 µg/L while it was 87.25 ± 0.83 µg/L for the unexposed batch. Radiofrequency electromagnetic waves emitted from cell phones may lead to oxidative stress and rapid diffusion of the human ferritin level in an in vitro enzymun assay. Also, the enzyme activity can be affected. Effects of exposure from mobile phones must be considered further.
