Microwaves break DNA in Brain 

Microwave news Nov-Dec 1994 (vXIVn6) reports that low-level microwave radiation can cuase DNA breaks in the brains of experimental animals. The results which naturally have caused a lot of interest within the cellular phone industry come from research groups in the U.S. and in India. 

"Drs. Henry Lai and Narendra Singh of the University of Washington have found that a sinlge two-hour exposure to 2.45GHz radiation at levels currently believed to be safe can increase the nuber of single-strand breaks in the DNA of the brain cells of rats." Singh says "The data are very impressive and are very interesting". 

Dr. Soma Sarkar of the institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences in New Delhi, India, have found that the DNA in the brains and testes of mice had undergone "rearrangement" following microwave exposure. They conlude it "seems imperative" that the mutagenic potential of microwave radiation should be reevaluated. 

Lai and Singh were invited twice to the mobile telephone industri October 19 panel workshop (U.S.), but were not allowed to attend. 

One comment from a colleague of Lai's, said "You've got dynamite in your hands - if it turns out to be a real effect the implications are tremendeous". The results will, if they are validated, have implications far beyond the cellular telephone industry, and a reevaluation of the ANSI/IEEE standard would be neccessary. 

The concern over DNA breaks are not entirely new, in the mid-1980s Drs. JoseLuis Sagripanti and Mays Swicord, University of Maryland reported single and double breaks in DNA due to microwave radiation acting synergistically with copper. There are also other reports where microwave radiation transforms DNA or promotes cancer. 

Written 950125 by Clas Tegenfeldt.