Spirostomum ambiguum

 In our everyday life we spend a good deal of time being under influence of weak electromagnetic radiation – it can come from mobile phones or microwave ovens, for instance. Active debates about possible danger of this type of radiation take place all over the world. New facts on the subject arrive from Russian researchers.

In Russia the government has approved sanitation and epidemiology standards, which among other things state maximum allowable mean value for energy flux density for radio frequency exposure. However, researchers from Obninsk (department of biology of Obninsk Institute of Nuclear Power, which is a part of National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”) found out that impact of radio frequency radiation at frequencies, used for mobile communications, does no good for infusorians at energy flux density, which is two times lower than its maximum allowable mean value, mentioned in the official standards.

Sanitation and epidemiology standards in our country have maximum allowable mean value for energy flux density of 10 microwatt for square centimeter. This standard, the toughest in the world in this field, was set after a series of experiments, performed on several human volunteers, as well as on speechless plants and laboratory animals.

Scientists from Obninsk performed their studies of weak electromagnetic radiation on infusorians Spirostomum ambiguum. These protozoa very often participate in various scientific and medical experiments as biological test-objects. Whether a tested object is dangerous can be seen in motion behavior of these animals – they slow down, when they don’t like something or feel bad. Researchers put infusorians into a special chamber and observe them via a light microscope with a grid lens. The more lines of the grid an infusorium crossed within one minute, the more active it is considered to be.

Poor protozoa were exposed to radiation at frequencies of a cell phone (1 gigahertz) at three various values of energy flux density: maximum allowable value, half of the previous parameter, and energy five times higher than maximum allowable value. When infusorians Spirostomum ambiguum found themselves in electromagnetic field with maximum allowable value of energy flux density, their ability to move became 40% worse in 30-40 minutes, compared to unexposed infusorians. Halving energy flux led to increase of “safe time” up to 8-9 hours, and excessive energy flux cut “safe time” to 10 minutes. Researchers report that in all variants of the experiment infusorians have abruptly become 40% less motile, compared to their lucky unexposed relatives. Time of exposure had no additional effect on motility.

Researchers believe that their valuable study helps estimate quantitatively how low intensity radio frequency radiation affects biological objects. Most interesting fact in this research is that experiments revealed “safe” periods of time for such an impact, which appeared to depend on energy flux density.

Source: Science & Technologies

Kizilova Anna