ABSTRACT
The tremendous development of wireless communications (WC) technology during the past 30 years has transformed telecommunications and popularized mobile phones so much that, today, their number exceeds the global population. In addition to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and corresponding electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from natural sources like sun, cosmos, atmospheric discharges, etc., humans are exposed to man-made EMFs/EMR, especially at the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) and the Radio Frequency (RF)/microwave bands. EMFs/EMR emitted by WC devices, such as mobile phones and corresponding antennas, contain RF carrier signals which are pulsed and modulated by ELF signals. We call these complex emissions WC EMFs. WC EMFs have generated great concern in the scientific community and the public, as they have been reported to cause headache, fatigue, tinnitus (microwave hearing), concentration problems, depression, memory loss, sleep, and hormonal disorders as short-term effects and even infertility and cancer as the long-term effects. This chapter has been written after collecting information from various search engines, including Google Scholar, PubMed, SciFinder, Science Direct, and other websites on the internet. The chapter focuses on the genotoxic cellular effects of WC EMFs on cultured cells, humans, and animals. Since WC EMFs combine both RF and ELF, in this chapter, both RF/WC and purely ELF man-made EMF studies are reviewed. Most studies conducted on the genotoxic effects of ELF or RF/WC EMFs have resulted in positive findings. Many human and animal studies have demonstrated that ELF or RF/WC man-made EMFs increased the frequency of micronuclei and induced chromosome aberrations or DNA damage, including single- and double-strand breaks. It has also been demonstrated that these EMFs trigger reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and changes in gene expression, particularly in genes involved in signal transduction, cytoskeleton formation, and cellular metabolism.
