title: Study of potential health effects of electromagnetic fields of telephony and Wi-Fi, using chicken embryo development as animal model.
abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate possible biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) as used in modern wireless telecommunication in a well-controlled experimental environment using chicken embryo development as animal model. Chicken eggs were incubated under continuous experimental exposure to GSM (1.8 GHz), DECT (1.88 GHz), UMTS (2.1 GHz), and WLAN (5.6 GHz) radiation, with the appropriate modulation protocol, using a homogeneous field distribution at a field strength of approximately 3 V/m, representing the maximum field level in a normal living environment. Radiation-shielded exposure units/egg incubators were operating in parallel for exposed and control eggs in a climatized homogeneous environment, using 450 eggs per treatment in three successive rounds per treatment. Dosimetry of the exposure (field characteristics and specific absorption rate) were studied. Biological parameters studied included embryo death during incubation, hatching percentage, and various morphological and histological parameters of embryos and chicks and their organs, and gene expression profiles of embryos on day 7 and day 18 of incubation by microarray and qPCR. No conclusive evidence was found for induced embryonic mortality or malformations by exposure to the used EMFs, or for effects on the other measured parameters. Estimated differences between treatment groups were always small and the effect of treatment was not significant. In a statistical model that ignored possible interaction between rounds and exposure units, some of the many pairwise comparisons of exposed versus control had P-values lower than 0.05, but were not significant after correction for multiple testing. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:186-203, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Woelders
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lourens
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stockhofe
authors.affiliation: Biometris, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hulsegge
authors.affiliation: Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dirkjan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schokker
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Cancer Genomics Center Netherlands, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Heijningen
authors.affiliation: TNO, The Hague, Den Haag, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vossen
authors.affiliation: TNO, The Hague, Den Haag, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bekers
authors.affiliation: TNO, The Hague, Den Haag, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zwamborn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D009929:Organ Size; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D000069079:Radiation Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D011846:Radio Waves; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D059015:Wireless Technology
keywords: SAR; Wi-Fi; biological effects; electromagnetic fields; radiofrequency; telephony