India Commissions Study on Health Impact of Mobile Phones

India has commissioned a study on the health impact of mobile phones.

The study, ordered by the federal Health Ministry, is the first large-scale study on the effects of radio frequency radiation (RFR) from mobile phones on humans.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)'s School of Environmental Sciences and three departments of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) — obstetrics and gynaecology, neurology and biochemistry, will be jointly conducting the proposed five-year-study.

They will study RFR's effect on reproductive health like menstrual cycle, hormonal changes in women, on male reproductive functions and whether it causes abnormalities in the male reproductive tract.

In a recent pilot project at JNU, rats subjected to radiation from mobile phones were found to have damaged DNA and low sperm count, leading to infertility and reduction in testis size. The rats were subjected to two hours of RFR for 35 days in a sample chamber.

Dr J Behari of  JNU's School of Environmental Sciences, who had conducted the pilot study,  told Times of India, "We found significant double strand DNA break in sperm cells that could mutate and cause cancer, significant lowering of sperm count and reduction in testis size. The human study would be path breaking."



R.S.Sharma, Deputy Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research and   lead investigator of the new study, said they would also seek to find out whether excessive mobile use can cause cancer or increase the spread of cancerous cells in those already affected.