Research Notebook

Leading Edge Research Group, P.O. Box 7530, Yelm, Washington 98597

Subject: Microwave Interactions With Human Tissue

Page 1

Evidence for Tissue Interactions With Microwave and
Other Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Fields in Cancer Promotion

W.R.Adey
Veterans Administration Medical Center and Loma Lina University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California

Cell membranes have been identified as a prime site of athermal (effects due to non-heating) interaction with low frequency electromagnetic fields and with microwave fields which are amplitude-modulated at frequencies below 100 Hz. These fields modulate signals to the cell interior initiated at cell surface receptors by hormones, antibodies and neurotransmitters, and by chemical cancer promoters. Cancer promotion may involve joint action of EM fields and cancer-promoting substances at cell membranes, with distorted inward signals from the membrane to the nucleus and to other intracellular organelles.

Introduction

Tissue interactions with electromagnetic (EM) fields have been extensively studied in terms of two quite different endpoints; in their thermal effects and in ionization of atoms in biomolecular systems. Only recently, it has become apparent that major biological interactions also occur in the absence of either significant heating effects or ionization. Ionizing radiation poses hazards to living organisms through its destructive effects on key macromolecular systems. It is implicit for ionizing radiation that it must have sufficiently high photon energies to disrupt the atomic organization of the exposed macromolecular systems; since spectrum (photon energies less than about 12 eV) does not possess sufficient energy to cause ionization, there has been a persisting view in certain areas of the physical sciences that non-ionizing EM fields are incapable of inducing bioeffects, other than those by heating.

This prevalent, though inadequate view overlooks the existence of cooperative organization in biomolecular systems, and the profoundly important role that cooperativity appears to play in the detection of tissue componentys of non-ionizing EM fields. The nature of these interactions is so far removed from the concepts and models that have guided (orthodox) research in ionizing radiation, that expertise in the latter aras can offer little in the search for underlying mechanisms; equilibrium thermodynamics and the classical models of the statistical mechanics of matter appear equally inappropriate in their applications to most key questions on the biological effects of non-ionizing EM fields.

Moreover, far from a limited biological significance restricted to considerations of potential hazards, imposition of weak non-ionizing EM fields has proved a powerful tool in understanding both the sequence and the energetics of transmembrane signals initiated by hormones, antibodies, neutrotransmitters, and chemical cancer promoters at cell surface receptor sites. We shal note that cell membranes function as powerful amplifiers of their first weak interactions with both EM fields and humoral stimuli; and that, as revealed by field effects, these interactions are non-equilibrium in character. They are consistent with quantum processes involving long-range interactions between electric charges on cell surface macromolecules. Since these studies have shown similar sensitivities in a wide range of tissues and cell types, we conclude that these electrochemical sensitivities may be a general biological property of all cells.

The Electromagnetic Environment and Its Impact on Man

In the workplace, in the home, and in external environments, there has been an exponential increase over the past half century in the use of devices and systems employing EM energy. They create an almost infinite variety of EM fields that cover a broad frequency spectrum extending from below 100 Hz to the millimeter microwave bands and the far infrared region. These artificial fields typically exceed in intensity the natural background by many orders of magnitude. The proliferation of diverse sources has dramatically increased the potential for public exposure at virtually all parts of this broad spectrum.