radiofrequency fields of cellular phones on plasma lipid peroxidase and antioxidase activities in human erythrocytesâ, J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal., 2001, vol. 26, pp.
Electromagnetic Pollution and its Effects on Living Matter Daniel LINGVAY1, Alin Gabriel BORȘ2, Adriana-Mariana BORȘ3* 1
Facultatea de Electronică, Telecomunicații și Tehnologia Informației, Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca, Str. George Barițiu, nr. 26-28, 400027 Cluj-Napoca, România; 2 Central Military Emergency University Hospital Dr. Carol Davila, Str. Calea Plevnei, nr. 134, 010825 București, România; 3 ICPE SA, Splaiul Unirii, nr. 313, 030138 București, România *(correspondent author) Abstract As a result of technological developments, the electricity production and consumption and, implicitly, environmental pollution with electromagnetic fields of anthropogenic origin is constantly in increasing. Without electricity and without telecommunication systems (the pollution main sources with EMF in the ELF band or RF band), nowadays human life is not conceived. The natural development of complex bio electrochemical processes at the cellular level is disturbed by the anthropogenic origin electromagnetic fields — the nature and intensity of the disturbances being determined by the disturbing electromagnetic fields frequency and intensity. In this context, it is particular importance considered to know the effects and the environment risks — in particular on the health and human life quality — of exposures to anthropogenic origin electromagnetic fields. Through in-depth knowledge, both preventive and/or mitigating adverse effects of uncontrolled exposures and the bio electrochemical technologies development and/or effective therapeutic procedures can be conceived). Keywords: living matter; electromagnetic field EMF; electric field EF; extremely low frequency ELF; low frequency LF; radio frequency RF Received: October 24, 2017 To cite this article: LINGVAY D., BORȘ A.G., BORȘ A.M., “Electromagnetic pollution and its effects on living matter”, in Electrotehnica, Electronica, Automatica (EEA), 2018, vol. 66, no. 2, pp.05-11, ISSN 1582-5175.
1. Introduction In sustainable development perspective, ensuring healthy working and living conditions is a priority issue [1-3]. Under the current technological development conditions, an essential condition of the human life quality is the electricity provision. The generation, transmission /distribution and use of electricity involves, the generation of electromagnetic fields which, by AC polarization, influence the mechanism and kinetics of the natural electrochemical and bioelectrochemical processes [4] and accelerates the corrosion and/or of degradation processes of materials in the build-up media. [5-14] By laboratory studies [13, 15-17] but also by field investigations (case analysis) [18-21] it was emphasized that polarization in A.C. of metals in electrolytes (including natural ones such as soil, groundwater etc.) accelerates electrochemical corrosion, a process that is substantially accelerated in the presence of microorganisms (microbiological corrosion MIC). The degradation under simultaneous and synergic action of the electric fields and micro-organisms of buildup media determines the lifetime and safety of exploitation of, high-risk vital installations such as underground metallic pipelines (for gas and oil products) [17-20], power cables [21-23], etc. On the other hand, many studies have highlighted the fact that these electromagnetic fields (EMF) have a major influence on the behaviour of living matter — depending on intensity and frequency, it can significantly influence
biochemical processes. [24-32] In this context, the paper presents a documentary analysis of the main aspects of the anthropogenic origin EMF interactions with the living matter, with emphasis on the humankind health involuntarily exposed, as well as potential exploitation in various industrial processes /syntheses and/or bioelectrochemical therapies. 2. Life and electromagnetic fields — electromagnetic pollution The genesis and evolution of life on Earth took place under the natural electromagnetic fields action described for the first time by Schumann [33-36]. Luc Montagnier studies [37-39] (although sometimes disputed — in our insufficiently documented opinion) resulted that, the complex processes between nucleotides in DNA and RNA as well as DNA sequences are influenced by EMF in the extremely low frequency (ELF) field. Recently, by dielectric spectroscopy determinations on various biomasses it was found that in the ELF domain, biomasses respond differentially /selectively to electrical stimulus depending on the field frequency applied [40]. Following these findings, an original process was developed to determine the “sensitive” frequencies where significant changes in biomass behaviour were made [41]. Experimentally, the growth and multiplication of Aspergillus niger is strongly stimulated by electric field with a 50 Hz power frequency [42] — which can explain the much lower resistance to the moulds action of some polymers exposed in disturbed media through a 50 Hz electric field. [18, 21-23, 43] The main structural elements
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of the cell, namely the cell membrane, nucleus and cytoplasm, form a complex electrochemical system. The kinetics and mechanism of biochemical oxidereduction (redox) reactions that take place in the cytoplasmic volume and at the interface between the cell membrane and the cytoplasm are determined by the EF electric fields acting on them. Under these conditions, EF of anthropogenic origin, by modifying the natural polarization distributions, of the membrane potentials, can disturb the natural development of biochemical processes, so they can be considered a pollutant factor (the environment electromagnetic pollution [4]). In principle, the EF frequency applied to an electrolytic medium produces orientation in the polarization pulse rhythm (+/-) of the polar molecules in the system (pseudo "stirring") — of course, provided relaxation time of the polar species τ (depending on the polar molecule size) to be less than the period T = 1/f of the disturbing electric field. [4] Following the polar reactants oscillatory movements in the system, their reactivity changes and, implicitly, the processes kinetics (the speed) involving the polar species thus activated. In these conditions, the polar species in the system enter into a differentiated /selective reaction depending on τ and f of the electric field applied with consequences on the reaction products spectrum formed. EF disturbing intensity determines both the polar molecules "polarization" level and the polarization in A.C. [4] and implicitly over voltage in the cell membrane level — with all implications on equilibria and bioelectrochemical processes /syntheses in the system. In view of these considerations it is found that in the field of ELF when T = 1/f ˃τ, for most polar reactants in the system the disturbing EF frequency will largely determine the reaction products nature formed and the field intensity applied will determine the reaction speed. Noteworthy is that, specific to living matter, at intense electric fields — irrespective of the frequency of the applied field — due to excessive polarization, the cell membrane perforation (with all related consequences) [40,42] occurs. In high and very high EMF frequency case, T = 1/f
