ABSTRACT
For most scientists studying the biological effects of radio-frequency (RF) radiation in the early 1970s, the only mechanism of action was heating. The newly commercialized microwave oven had been brought on the market to make kitchen duties easier and it succeeded. Then many scientists attended the New York Academy of Sciences Meeting on February 12-15, 1974, entitled Conference on the Biological Effects of Non-Ionizing Radiation. Some attendees were forever changed by the presentations made by Ross Adey’s group from the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Dr. Suzanne Bawin presented results involving the release of calcium ions (using Ca-45 as a tracer and as a surrogate measure of GABA release), which occurred when 147 MHz carrier waves were sinusoidally amplitude modulated (AM) at frequencies associated with EEG recordings. Bawin used a chick brain tissue preparation and found a power density window well below thermalizing levels, within which enhanced calcium ion efux occurred and, most importantly, a modulation frequency window centered at 16 Hz, with no effect below 6 Hz and above 20 Hz and no modulation present [1]. Following this meeting, three EPA scientists (including this author) were given approval to visit Adey’s laboratory at UCLA to get a better sense of the probability that these results were not artifacts. Adey’s group members were very open and provided the background research ndings to explain why they had even conceived of the experiment. We concluded that the results appeared genuine and that opinion was augmented by Adey’s laboratory request that we try to replicate the results.
