Reproductive problems associated with EMF exposure

  • Scientific Reports: Miscarriage risk increased 2.72-fold when exposed to magnetic frequencies (from <2.5 to ≥6.3 mG), it was consistently observed regardless of the EMF source. The association was much stronger if magnetic frequencies are measured on a typical day of the participants’ pregnancies.
  • Pathophysiology: Swedish youth who began using either cordless or mobile phones regularly before age 20 have greater than a fourfold increased risk of ipsilateral glioma. Pregnant women should keep cellphones away from their abdomen and men who wish to become fathers should not keep these phones on while in their pocket. (Full text link)
  • Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine: Risk factors for pregnant women in Beijing who suffered spontaneous abortions include living within 100 meters of a cell phone tower.
  • Epidemiology: Increased risk of childhood leukemia among children whose mothers were exposed to the highest occupational levels of ELF-MF during pregnancy.
  • Fertility and Sterility: Human semen exposed to radiation from a cell phone (850 MHz; 1 Watt; SAR 1.46 W/kg; 1–40 μW/cm2; non-thermal; 60 minute exposure) showed a significant decrease in sperm motility and viability. Keeping the cell phone in a trouser pocket in talk mode may negatively affect spermatozoa and impair male fertility.
  • Journal of Andrology: Sperm from men using mobile phones is less concentrated, has decreased motility (particularly rapid progressive motility), and decreased viability. These abnormalities seem to be directly related to the duration of mobile phone use.
  • First International Journal of Andrology: Cell phone use negatively affects sperm quality in men. Patients using cell phones had significantly higher testosterone and lower luteinising hormone levels than those who did not use cell phones. 
  • International Journal of Andrology: Cell phone waves at a distance of 2.5 cm have a detrimental effect on the viability of human sperm. Cell phones should be carried away from the pelvis.
  • Archives of Andrology: Cell phone possession and the daily transmission time correlated: a) Negatively with the proportion of rapid progressive motile sperm, and b) Positively with the proportion of slow progressive motile sperm. The prolonged use of cell phones may have negative effects on the sperm motility characteristics. (See full text of study)
  • Tohoku Journal Experimental Medicine: Exposure to 2.45 GHz RF-EMR from Wi-Fi transmitters is hazardous to male reproductive system. Testes showed degenerative changes, reduced testosterone level, increased apoptotic cells, and DNA damage. Effects caused by elevation of testicular temperature and oxidative stress activity.
  • Fertility and Sterility: Use of cell phones decrease the semen quality in men by decreasing the sperm count, motility, viability, and normal morphology. The decrease in sperm parameters depends on duration of daily exposure to cell phones, independent of initial semen quality.
  • Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity: Oxidative stress induced by EMF causes reproductive toxicity with a mitochondrial basis in male and female reproductive systems.
  • PLOS One: RF-EMR (1.8 GHz, 0.4 W/kg to 27.5 W/kg) induced oxidative stress in human sperm, damaging DNA. These effects correlate with poor fertility, increased miscarriage, childhood cancer, and morbidity in the offspring.
  • Pakistan Journal of Zoology: 22 healthy fertile male volunteers, ages 20-35 years, were recruited from Faisalabad, Pakistan. The mean fast progressive sperm percentage and non-motile percentage were significantly (lower (4.28%) and higher (4.06%), respectively) in the group group exposed to 900 MHz to 1.800 GHz cell phone radiation, compared to un-exposed group.
  • Microwave Review (2005 – Russian) later Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine (2009): Because non-thermal microwaves affect not only brain cells, but also blood cells, skin and fibroblasts, stem cells, reproductive organs and sperm quality, hands-free cell phones cannot minimize all adverse health effects. Identification of signals and frequency channels/bands for mobile communication, which do not affect human cells, is needed as a high priority task for the development of safe mobile communication.
  • Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine: Duration of exposure to the waves emitted by the GSM cell phones associated with higher percentage of sperm cells of abnormal morphology, and a decrease in the percentage of sperm cells in vital progressing motility. The 15% of married couples in Poland with fertility problems may have causes including exposure to chemicals, ionizing radiation, stress, and EMF.
  • American Journal of Industrial Medicine: OSHA noted increased incidence cancers of the testes, blood, brain, eye, and skin among police officers working with traffic radar. Among 22,197 officers employed by 83 Ontario (Canada) police departments, there are statistically significant rates of testicular and skin cancers.
  • Environment International: Pooled studies suggest that mobile phone exposure negatively affects sperm quality.
  • Environmental Research: Wi-Fi radiation causes oxidative stress, sperm/testicular damage, neuropsychiatric effects including EEG changes, apoptosis, cellular DNA damage, endocrine changes, and calcium overload.
  • International Journal of Research and Reviews in Applied Sciences: Human sperm concentration, motility and morphology grading are affected significantly by exposure to RFR emanating from a laptop antenna in active mode at 2.4 GHz
  • Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology: Radiation from cell phones, laptops, Wi-Fi and microwave ovens may contributes to male infertility. In-vitro and in-vivo studies suggest RF-EMF exposure negatively affects sperm quality.
  • Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology: The maximum acceptable exposure limit should be lowered for cellular phones. Non-thermal RF-EMW from commercially available cell phones might affect the fertilizing potential of spermatozoa.
  • Fertility and Sterility: Use of laptop computers connected to internet through Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz, non-thermal effect) decreases human sperm motility and increases sperm DNA fragmentation
  • Journal of Pediatric Urology: Radiofrequency waves emitted from conventional Wi-Fi devices poses potential effect on both fertility and the integrity of sperm cells.
  • Saudi Medical Journal: Fetal and neonatal heart rate increases, and cardiac output decreases when pregnant women in Cairo Egypt were exposed to non-thermal radiation from a 900 MHz cell phone, held on the right side of the head, in dialing mode, for 3 cycles of 10 minutes on/10 minutes off.
  • International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health: Available findings suggest biomedical effects from 5G frequencies, including reproductive, metabolic/neurologic effects, and altered bacterial antibiotic resistance.
  • International Journal of Radiation Biology: GSM 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz mobile phone antennas decreased fruit fly reproductive capacity due to cell death induction. Cell phone bioactivity was evident at exposure intensities down to 1 μW/cm2, with maximum bioactivity at 10 μW/cm2, about 20-30 cm from the mobile phone antenna.
  • Cell Journal: WiFi radio-frequency radiation (2.45-GHz, 3.21 W/kg SAR, 1 hr/day, 28 days) caused decrease in sperm parameters, reduced weight of the seminal vesicle, and abnormal programmed cell death in semen tubules of exposed rats.
  • Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine: EMF exposure was found to alter the reproductive endocrine hormones, gonadal function, embryonic development, pregnancy, and fetal development. At the cellular level, an increase in free radicals may mediate the effect of EMFs and lead to cell growth inhibition, protein mis-folding, and DNA breaks.
  • Bioelectromagnetics: Wi-Fi exposure from laptop computer in high performance mode causes 5.6 °C, 2.1 °C, and 1.4 °C increases in lap skin, scrotum, and testis, respectively. (2.4 and 5 GHz, 1 W antenna, 420 W/m2 heat flux under laptop).
  • Epidemiology: Risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia was elevated in children who used electric blankets, or children whose mothers used electric blankets or mattress pads during pregnancy.
  • International Journal of Cancer Prevention: Population living within 350 meters of a 850 MHz, 1500 watt cell phone tower in Netanya, Israel experienced a 4 fold cancer increase (i.e., carcinoma of the breast, ovary, lung, kidney, bone, and Hodgkin’s disease). Obvious potentially confounding variables were ruled out.
  • American Journal of Epidemiology: Pregnancies of mothers reporting radio- and microwave-frequency electromagnetic radiation use 6 months prior to the pregnancy or during the first trimester were more likely to result in miscarriage. Miscarriage risk increases with the level of exposure.
  • Journal of the American Medical Association – Pediatrics: A more than 3.5-fold increased rate of asthma occurs in children when mothers have more than 2.0 milligauss magnetic frequency exposure during their pregnancy, when compared to the children of mothers who had less than 0.3 milligauss magnetic frequency exposure during their pregnancy.
  • Reviews on Environmental Health: Exposure to electromagnetic fields on the release of mercury from dental amalgam fillings indicates that pregnant women with dental amalgam fillings should limit their exposure to electromagnetic fields to prevent toxic effects of mercury in their fetuses.
  • Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics: Significantly reduced numbers of immature eggs found in the ovaries in the offspring of pregnant rats kept in polypropylene cages with mobile phones placed beneath the cage during their entire pregnancy. Exposure was 11.75 hours in standby mode, followed by 15 minutes in talk mode.
  • Scientific Reports: Radiation from cell phones at 800-1900 MHz causes neuropathology in the offspring of pregnant mice.
  • General Physiology and Biophysics: Pregnant and non-pregnant rabbits exposed to RF EMF have elevated DNA and lipid damage.
  • Epidemiology: Miscarriage risk increases with the level of magnetic field exposure, with a threshold around 16 milligauss (mG)
  • Clinics (Sao Paulo): Non-thermal exposure to radiation from GSM cell phones (0.9/1.8 GHz, 1 hour/day for 28 days) induces oxidative stress and reduces sperm motility in rats 
  • Indian Journal of Experimental Biology: A significant decrease in total sperm count along with increased cell death in male rats exposed to RF EMF (2 hours/day, 35 days, 0.9 W/kg). Decrease in sperm count and an increase in apoptosis may be causative factor due to mobile radiation exposure leading to infertility.
  • Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics: Significantly reduced numbers of immature eggs found in the ovaries in the offspring of pregnant rats kept in polypropylene cages with mobile phones placed beneath the cage during their entire pregnancy. Exposure was 11.75 hours in standby mode, followed by 15 minutes in talk mode.
  • Reproductive Health: Non-thermal RF-EMF (900 MHz, 0.66 W/kg, 2 hours/day, for 50 days) triggers death of rat sperm, resulting in male infertility
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: GSM 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz mobile phones decreased biological activity in fruit flies. Both types of radiation were found to decrease significantly and non thermally the insect’s reproductive capacity, but GSM 900 MHz seems to be even more bioactive than DCS 1800 MHz.
  • Oxidants and Antioxidants in Medical Science (Ukraine): Exposure of developing quail eggs to low-intensity microwave from 900 MHz cell phone resulted in damaged DNA, likely caused by modulating EMF.
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Postpartum death rate for lab mice exposed to an MRI at days 9 and 12 after gestation increased from 8% to 38%. Sperm production reduced up to 44% in adult mice exposed to MRI on day 12 after gestation.
  • Journal of Research in Agriculture and Animal Science: Two working cell phones kept in test colonies caused significant decrease in colony strength, honey stores, pollen reserves, number of foragers returning to their hives, egg laying capacity of queens, and disturbed the navigational skills of foragers.
  • Biomedical Research: Exposure to 900 MHz from 2 Watt cell phones increased the mortality in chicken embryos. Mortality correlates with power density at the egg location and duration of exposure.
  • International Journal of Andrology: Significant genotoxic effect on epididymal spermatozoa (i.e., sperm after development in testes) in mice exposed to low power RF EMF (900 MHz; 90 mW/kg – i.e., non-thermal exposure; 12 hours/day; for 7 days). 
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Long-term exposure of 2.4 GHz RF emitted from Wi-Fi (2420 μW/kg, 1 g average) affects some of the reproductive parameters of male rats. We suggest Wi-Fi users avoid long-term exposure to RF emissions from Wi-Fi equipment.
  • Urological Research: Rats confined in plexiglas cages with cellular phone 0.5 cm under the cages, were exposed 2 hours/day for 1 month, 0.14 W/kg. Microscopic evaluation revealed significant changes in the testes of rats exposed to cell phones in speech mode.
  • Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy: DNA damage in rat testes associated with long-term exposure to 2.4 GHz RF radiation from Wi-Fi.