Mobile Phone Radiations, Possible Disruptor of Early Retinal Development

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted with an objective to investigate the effects of mobile phone induced 
radiations on retinal morphogenesis of chick embryo.    
Study Design: Experimental Study. 
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Anatomy department, Regional Centre, College of 
Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, Islamabad from Jan. 2006 to Jan. 2007. 
Materials and Methods: Chicken embryos were exposed to mobile phone silent mode ringing by placing a 
GSM operated phone in the centre of the fertilized eggs developing in the incubator. This phone was ringed 
upon for 15 minutes twice daily for one experimental subgroup and 25 minutes twice for the other subgroup. 
The control and experimental groups were sacrificed at the end of 10 post incubation days. The retinae of the 
embryos were dissected out and statistically compared for the heights of different retinal layer after paraffin 
processing of sections. 
For lower dosage (15 minutes of ringing) of mobile phone induced EMFs, thickness of the rods and cones layer 
and inner plexiform layer of the treated subgroup was significantly less than the control. On increasing the 
dosage to 25 minutes, thickness of the pigment epithelial layer of the treated group was significantly more than 
the control group. All the other layers were more in thickness in this subgroup but this difference was not 
statistically significant.  
Results: The results of the study conclude that mobile phone radiations have a dose dependant regulatory effect 
on the early developmental process of chick embryo retina. 
Conclusion: EMFs dose Mobile phone induced EMFs disrupt the developmental process of embryonal 
retinogenesis. This effect is influenced differently at different levels exposure.