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BabySafe Project Press Conference: Reduce Cell Phone Radiation Exposure to Pregnant Women

Jan 31, 2022

Pregnant Woman - Pregnancy, Wireless and Electromagnetic Fields

Watch the BabySafe Project press conference where Hugh Taylor MD, Chief of OBGYN at Yale Medicine and Devra Davis PhD, MPH  presented on the scientific basis for the recommendations to reduce cell phone radiation exposure to pregnant women.

The BabySafe Project recommends reducing cell phone radiation to protect the developing brain of babies during pregnancy. It is a joint Project between Environmental Health Trust and Grassroots Environmental Education.

As of August 2016 over 200 physicians, scientists, and public health professionals from around the world have signed onto this Project “to express their concern about the risk that wireless radiation poses to pregnancy and to urge pregnant women to limit their exposures.”

Cell Phone Radiation Impacts the Brain

Cell phone radiofrequency radiation has been shown to alter brain activity in humans. In 2011, NIH research found just 50 minutes of a wireless transmitting device (cell phone) next to the brain increases glucose in the part of the brain most exposed. Preliminary 3G and 4G research has further shown that non-thermal levels of this radiation alter the brain’s electrical activity.,

 

Dr. Taylor and colleagues found that when mice were exposed to cell phone signals while pregnant, their offspring showed increased hyperactivity and lower memory scores. In addition, his neurological tests revealed abnormal development of neurons in the part of the brain linked to ADHD. Several other experiential studies have found that in-utero cell phone exposure leads to damaged brain development in mice and rats. 

Further research investigating cell phone radiation in combination with the known neurotoxin, lead has found that children with lead levels had higher ADHD-like symptoms if they also had higher cell phone use leading the researchers to consider a potential synergetic effect.

Research from Turkish scientists Bas, Odaci, Sonmez, Kaplan, and colleagues found significant brain cell damage within the hippocampus and cerebellum of adult rats following postnatal exposure to cell phone radiation frequencies. Many of these studies exposed rats to radiofrequency (RF) for only one hour a day for one month and afterward, the animal’s brains were carefully examined using a state-of-the-art stereological technique that counts brain cells. Sonmez, et al. state the age of their test animals is comparable to human teenagers, and thus their results suggest the human teenage brain is sensitive to chronic mobile phone exposure. These significant results prompted Dr. Suleyman Kaplan to file a comment on human exposure to radiofrequency to the US FCC   in which he summarizes his recent research showing neurological damage after exposure. Dr. Kaplan states his research, along with others, is evidence that current FCC standards are not adequate for children and teenagers due to their increased sensitivity to RFR and chronic lifetime exposure. 

A study by researchers from the Ondokuz Mayıs Medical School in Turkey examining electromagnetic field effects on the human hippocampus reported that subjects with high cell phone exposure showed a significant lack of attention and concentration in comparison to the low exposure group. Radiofrequency radiation exposure has also been shown to affect the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, as well as alter the expression of microRNA within the brain, which researchers state could lead to adverse effects such as neurodegenerative disease.

 

Dr. Seyhan and her team from Gazi University have published multiple studies assessing the impacts of radiofrequency radiation on the blood brain barrier as well as on DNA oxidative damage within the brain. Results indicate an increase in permeability and disruption of the BBB integrity following 20 minutes of RFR exposure at levels below the international limits., Furthermore, rats exposed to RFR simulating a 3G-mobile phone for 10 days (6h/day) showed increased DNA oxidative brain damage compared to controls. In 2012, Dr. Seyhan spoke at the National Press Club Expert Lecture, presenting these recent study results alongside five acclaimed experts and researchers. 

 

Prenatal Exposure

As with other environmental toxins, the developing fetus is particularly sensitive to exposure during critical developmental windows. Although more research needs to be done to fully understand the risk during windows of vulnerability, research on pregnant women has linked prenatal cell phone radiation exposure to oxidative stress and DNA damage in cord blood (Bektas et al., 2021); increased risk for miscarriage (Mahmoudabadi et al., 2015), lower birth weight (Lu et al., 2017), fetal growth impacts (Boileau et al., 2020), and preterm birth (Tsarna et al., 2019); as well as emotional/behavioral problems (Divan et al., 2012, Sudan et al., 2016) and hyperactivity (Birks et al., 2017) in their children. Animal studies have linked prenatal wireless exposure to DNA damage (Smith-Roe et al., 2020), brain damage (Tan et al., 2017), memory problems (Shahin et al., 2018), and hyperactivity (Aldad et al., 2012). 

Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation During Pregnancy

A Kaiser Foundation Research Institute team took measurements of the magnetic field ELF-EMF exposure of pregnant women and followed their pregnancies and subsequent birth and health of their children over time. They published a series of studies documenting links between higher prenatal magnetic field exposure (ELF-EMF) and miscarriage (Li et al., 2017) as well as ADHD (Li et al., 2020), obesity (Li et al., 2012), and asthma (Li et al., 2011) in children exposed prenatally.