Low power microwaves at 1.8GHz and 2.1 GHz induce chages in Catalase enzyme kinetics

Abstract

With rapid development and advancement in technology, public is continuously exposed to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by radiofrequency (RF) and microwave (MW) technology devices such as mobile phones, Wi-Fi, Smart meters and different medical equipment. The exposures to high power RF and MW radiation that produce heating effects on body and tissue are already known and thoroughly studied, but there is little or negligible information about the health effects of long-term exposures to low power RF and MW radiation. With 60% penetration of mobile phone use on global population, and its increase of more than 200% in the last 10 years and expected to cross 5 billion mark by 2019, exposures to weak (low power) RF and MW used for voice and data transfer have become a significant health concern. This prompted the effort from the scientific community to evaluate the impact of long-term exposures of low power RF and MW radiation at the cellular and molecular levels and investigate the underlying mechanisms behind these effects. This study evaluated the effects of MW radiation at 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz and powers of −10 dBm, 0 dBm and 17 dBm on kinetics of Catalase enzyme, a protein playing a key role in metabolic reactions in living organisms. Our findings reveal that microwaves at 2.1GHz and selected powers induce changes in the enzyme kinetics, which lead to modulation of the rate of change in corresponding reaction this enzyme accelerates.