Abstract
Elevated chronic exposure to any sort of radiation is hazardous to human health. Besides ionizing radiation, exposures to electromagnetic radiation mainly from the use of mobile phones have become a matter of great health concern, especially its extended duration use even by children. At the same time there are several unknowns related to the ill effects including carcinogenicity of prolonged exposure. The objective of this investigation was to find the effect on certain vital hematological parameters namely hemoglobin level, white blood cell (WBC) count, platelet count and erythrocytes sedimentation rate (ESR) due to the prolonged exposure to mobile radiations through in vitro examination of human blood samples. Matched case control methodology was adopted for the study. Blood samples were collected by clinicians from 27 voluntary subjects for investigation. From each, one sample was kept un-exposed while the other three samples were exposed to mobile microwave radiations for 60 min continuously in identical and controlled conditions. A 4G hand phone of a very popular brand having transmission frequency range from 2.3 to 2.4 GHz including uplink and downlink was used. Hematological analyses were carried out on fresh samples immediately after collection. For comparison of the levels of hematological parameters, blood exposed to 1 h of phone radiation and control were analysed. Experimental results show that there is a significant change on the hematological components. The exposed blood samples were found to display decrease in platelet count only. Hemoglobin level, ESR rate and the WBC counts were found to be increased. While these observations are performed under controlled laboratory conditions, given the tremendous growth in number of mobile phone users, the effects could be a real concern especially in work places and cities even through passive exposure.
•Mobile phone radiation affects blood hemoglobin level, WBC and platelets count and ESR.•Effects of mobile phone radiation on hematological factors studied.•A matched case control approach was adopted for the investigation.•Long time and over exposure to mobile phone radiation may affect the individual health.