Understanding the Study
This paper is a review of scientific literature published regarding the effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure on the body's antioxidant defense system. The authors state the "EMF exposure is known to increase free radical concentrations" and thus result in an increase in oxidative stress which is linked to many negative health outcomes.
The Case for Concern
A free radical is an atom or molecule which has an uncharged valence electron. Elementary physics explains that the electron, having a negative charge, will be attracted to electrically positive (or neutral) surfaces. Thus, the free radical is highly chemically reactive, waiting on an antioxidant to "donate" an electron to it so as to neutralize its reactive properties.
Oxidative stress occurs when there are not enough antioxidants to balance out the free radicals. When this occurs, several damaging scenarios can play out. Free radicals can modify proteins, causing them to change in structure, and therefore lose function. They can also latch on to the cell membrane, damaging the structure. Furthermore, DNA damage may occur when DNA strands are broken, potentially resulting in mutation. When enough damage occurs, the cell may stop functioning and undergo apoptosis (programmed cell death).
The authors of this review include references from many different peer-reviewed papers which suggest that EMR exposure may contribute to the following ailments or diseases:
- sleep disorder
- loss of appetite
- arthrosclerosis
- diabetes
- dizziness
- rheumatoid arthritis
- cardiovascular disease
- nausea
- stroke
- neuronal disorders
- blood–brain barrier disruption
- damaged brain tissue
- Alzheimer’s
- male and female reproductive damage
- hormonal changes
- spinal cord injury
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- multiple sclerosis
- epilepsy
The Case for Confidence
It's hard to read the above list without wondering if there is anything under the sun that we can't blame on EMF exposure. Some might call this argumentum ad nauseam, the fallacious method of argument in which a claim seems to be proven through nauseating repetition. In this case, the authors seem to list every disease known to man as being related to EMF exposure, despite the fact that many of the diseases on this list already have known causes completely unrelated to such exposure. Unfortunately, the nature of a review paper is that one has to track down each individual reference to ensure that every claim adds up to support the authors' hypothesis regarding oxidative stress, something we don't have the capacity to do in this short commentary. Instead, we must rely on the authors' own words to draw our conclusions.
The second sentence is already off to a bad start when the authors state that "more than 3 billion people across the world are exposed to EMF every day." Well, yes, that's true. In fact, all people are exposed to electromagnetic fields every day. We live on earth after all. These fields are a natural phenomenon and predate mankind's very existence. Perhaps the authors meant to say that these 3 billion people are exposed to man-made electromagnetic radiation (EMR) daily. Even this shows a tenuous grasp of the underlying physics as practically everyone experiences this exposure daily as well. This certainly does not invalidate the claims of the paper, but a lack of understanding regarding the physics of electromagnetic waves does not bode well for the conclusions drawn on this unsteady premise.
Another particularly strange claim was made regarding the effect of electric fields on ions in the body. The authors state that these fields "exert an oscillatory force on every free ion on... both sides of the plasma membrane and cause them to cross it... [leading to] deterioration in the ion channels on the membrane." Yes, each ion in the body will experience a force due to the presence of an electric field, but to claim that every ion in the body starts oscillating through the ion channels due to every incident electromagnetic wave, thus causing widespread damage, takes the conclusion a bit too far. Consider the well-known sodium-potassium pump. If all ions in the body were subject purely to the whims of oscillating electric fields, these pumps would fail to perform their necessary biological function, and paralysis would set in immediately, thus resulting in a quick death. The fact that this doesn't happen gives us some hope that the scenario described by the authors is highly dramatized.
Final Analysis
This review did contain some useful information about the body's antioxidant defenses. In particular, the authors discussed several studies which showed the positive effects of antioxidant supplementation in combatting the over-generation of free radicals in the body. Despite the criticisms leveled above, there does seem to be a very real oxidative stress effect that is caused by EMR exposure. This effect has been discussed in previous commentaries and remains convincing here as well. Nevertheless, the evidence that EMR exposure is directly and causally related to the vast array of diseases laid out above is severely lacking.
References
E. G. Kıvrak, K. K. Yurt, A. A. Kaplan, I. Alkan, and G. Altun, J Microsc Ultrastruct 5, 167 (2017).