GSM RADIOCELLULAR TELEPHONES DO NOT DISTURB THE SECRETION OF ANTEPITUITARY HORMONES IN HUMANS

It is known that the endocrine system of experimental animals is susce ptible to perturbation by radiofrequency (RF) radiation. Because of th e recent interest in health and safety issues of cellular telephones, an experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of a 900 MHz RF radi ation emitted by a Global System for Mobile radiotelephone (217 Hz imp ulses, one-eighth duty cycle, 2 W peak power) on human endocrine funct ions. Twenty healthy male volunteers aged from 19 to 40 were inducted in the present experiment. Each subject was exposed to RF radiation th rough the use of a cellular phone 2 h/day, 5 days/wk, for I month. Sub jects were their own control. End points were serum adrenocorticotropi n, thyrotropin, growth hormone, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, and fo llicle stimulating hormone concentrations. These end points were deter mined in nine weekly blood samples obtained starting 3 weeks before th e commencement of the exposure and ending 2 weeks after exposures. All but one blood sample was drawn 48 h after each weekly session. The se venth drawing was performed the morning after the last weekly exposure . Within each individual, the preexposure hormone concentration was us ed as a control. Results indicated that all hormone concentrations rem ained within normal physiologic ranges. A difference was not noted amo ng the nine weekly samples in Ave of six hormones studied. There was a significant change only in thyrotropin concentration, showing a 21% d ecrease on the seventh sampling. Because this change recovered fully d uring the postexposure period, it is concluded that 1 month of intermi ttent exposures to RF radiation from a cellular telephone does not ind uce a long-lasting or cumulative effect on the hormone secretion rate of the anterior pituitary gland in humans. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.