Thirty-minutes’ exposure to smartphone call triggers neutrophil activation in vitro
-
Giuseppe Lippi
,
Elisa Danese
Abstract
Background:
Despite accumulating evidence about the negative health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phones, no information is available on the potential impact of radiofrequency (RF) waves on polymorphonuclear leukocytes biology.
Methods:
Two sequential whole blood tubes were collected from 16 ostensibly healthy volunteers. After placing the former tube of each subject in a plastic rack, 1 cm from a commercial smartphone (carrier frequency, 900 MHz), a call was placed on the smartphone and a communication lasting 30 min was manually activated. The latter blood tube of each volunteer was placed in another plastic rack, for an identical period of time, avoiding close contact with sources of RF waves. A complete blood count was then assessed in all whole blood samples, using Advia 2120.
Results:
The 30-min exposure of blood to RF waves did not induce significant variations of total and differential leukocyte counts. A significant decrease was however observed for many neutrophils parameters, with median percentage variation of −3.9% for the lobularity index (LI), −29.8% for the myeloperoxidase index (MPXI), −0.6% for the neutrophil cluster mean x (NEUTx) and −0.7% for the neutrophil cluster mean y (NEUTy), respectively. The percentage of blood samples with reduced values after exposure to RF waves was 81% for LI, 88% for NEUTx and 100% for both MPXI and NEUTy.
Conclusions:
The results of this study show that exposure to smartphone RF waves triggers activation of neutrophils in vitro, as mirrored by the significant variations observed in many activation parameters in Advia 2120.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorials
- The Theranos phenomenon, scientific transparency and freedom of speech
- Holotranscobalamin: in the middle of difficultly lies opportunity
- Review
- Laboratory and clinical risk assessment to treat myelodysplatic syndromes
- Mini Review
- Quantitative nucleic acid amplification by digital PCR for clinical viral diagnostics
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Hybrid minigene splicing assay verified the pathogenicity of a novel splice site variant in the dystrophin gene of a Chinese patient with typical Duchenne muscular dystrophy phenotype
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Prospective validation of an automated chemiluminescence-based assay of renin and aldosterone for the work-up of arterial hypertension
- Sex steroid hormone stability in serum tubes with and without separator gels
- Reduced absorption and enhanced synthesis of cholesterol in patients with cystic fibrosis: a preliminary study of plasma sterols
- An International Standard for holotranscobalamin (holoTC): international collaborative study to assign a holoTC value to the International Standard for vitamin B12 and serum folate
- A technical and clinical evaluation of a new assay for inhibin A and its use in second trimester Down syndrome screening
- Investigation on the ability of first trimester glycodelin and angiopoietin-2 to predict small-for-gestational age pregnancies at delivery
- Plasma total C-terminal agrin fragment (tCAF) as a marker for kidney function in patients with chronic kidney disease
- Hematology and Coagulation
- Thirty-minutes’ exposure to smartphone call triggers neutrophil activation in vitro
- Performance of the XN-2000 WPC channel-flagging to differentiate reactive and neoplastic leukocytosis
- Differences in lupus anticoagulant final conclusion through clotting time or Rosner index for mixing test interpretation
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- Derivation of level-specific reference change values (RCV) from a health screening database and optimization of their thresholds based on clinical utility
- Cancer Diagnosis
- BRAF analysis before surgery for papillary thyroid carcinoma: correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis in a single-institution prospective experience
- Letters to the Editor
- Significant increase of serum prostate-specific antigen after exercise
- Serum delipidation but not high-speed centrifugation is effective in clearing lipemia interference in serum lipase activity measurement
- A relationship between absolute monocyte count and C-reactive protein in patients with migraine undergoing no pharmacological therapy
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- Venous thromboembolism in a patient with persistent inhibitor to coagulation factor V – a case report
- Free light chains nephelometric assay: human urine stability in different storage conditions
- Comparing the viscoelastomeric fibrin polymerization assays FIBTEM® (ROTEM) vs. Functional Fibrinogen® (TEG): or why is a higher threshold for fibrinogen substitution better than a lower one?
- Reply to: Comparing the visco-elastomeric fibrin polymerization assays FIBTEM® (ROTEM) vs. Functional Fibrinogen® (TEG): or why is a higher threshold for fibrinogen substitution better than a lower one? By Schöchl et al.
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