Electromagnetic pollution has become a relevant problem for the actual environmental policy, especially for the tight connection with human health. NIR (Non Ionizing Radiation) interaction with environment and man is one of the most interesting research field for the world scientific community. This paper describes a part of a multidisciplinary research on the possible effects of RF (Radiofrequencies) electromagnetic fields on man. Man is always exposed to RF electromagnetic fields, which are in the 30-300 MHz range and regard radio and television communications. The investigation was carried out by an experimental facility which was built for exposing thymic cell cultures to RF electromagnetic fields. Thymic cell cultures were chosen because their alterations are generally index of cancerogenesis. The experimental facility was made by a climatic room, a control unit and a RF generating system. The control unit allow to control temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration in the climatic room respectively at 37°C, 74% and 5% (life condition for cell cultures). The climatic room is constituted by three boxes: an actuator box where temperature and humidity actuators are installed; a control box where parameters sensors and the CO2 actuator are installed; a measurement box which contains the cultures and the RF generating system. The climatic room walls are made by polystyrene which is transparent to electromagnetic fields in order to avoid anomalies in the field distribution. The RF generating system is made by a 144 MHz transmitter connected to a condenser by a coaxial cable. A 144 MHz frequency was chosen for the exposition tests because it is a typical frequency for radio amateur communications and it is intermediate between broadcasting radio and TV frequencies. Besides, other thymic culture plates were inserted into sinterized nickel boxes in the measurement box. The sinterized nickel boxes acts as electromagnetic shield. Thus, these are the not-exposed cultures. Exposition tests were carried out for three and six hours; the electromagnetic field intensity into the cell cultures was simulated by a numerical code. The exposed and not-exposed cultures were analysed after the tests. The paper focused to the analysis of thermophysical properties of the cultures (density, viscosity, specific heat). The analysis was carried out in order to verify if the exposition induced alterations of such properties. Besides, other branches of this research verified possible variations in the biomedical properties of the cultures. Results showed that the exposition at 144 MHz electromagnetic fields does not modify the thermophysical properties of the thymic cultures in the tested conditions.

Thermophysical properties of thymic cell cultures exposed to 144 Mhz RF electromagnetic fields

NICOLINI, ANDREA
2008

Abstract

Electromagnetic pollution has become a relevant problem for the actual environmental policy, especially for the tight connection with human health. NIR (Non Ionizing Radiation) interaction with environment and man is one of the most interesting research field for the world scientific community. This paper describes a part of a multidisciplinary research on the possible effects of RF (Radiofrequencies) electromagnetic fields on man. Man is always exposed to RF electromagnetic fields, which are in the 30-300 MHz range and regard radio and television communications. The investigation was carried out by an experimental facility which was built for exposing thymic cell cultures to RF electromagnetic fields. Thymic cell cultures were chosen because their alterations are generally index of cancerogenesis. The experimental facility was made by a climatic room, a control unit and a RF generating system. The control unit allow to control temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration in the climatic room respectively at 37°C, 74% and 5% (life condition for cell cultures). The climatic room is constituted by three boxes: an actuator box where temperature and humidity actuators are installed; a control box where parameters sensors and the CO2 actuator are installed; a measurement box which contains the cultures and the RF generating system. The climatic room walls are made by polystyrene which is transparent to electromagnetic fields in order to avoid anomalies in the field distribution. The RF generating system is made by a 144 MHz transmitter connected to a condenser by a coaxial cable. A 144 MHz frequency was chosen for the exposition tests because it is a typical frequency for radio amateur communications and it is intermediate between broadcasting radio and TV frequencies. Besides, other thymic culture plates were inserted into sinterized nickel boxes in the measurement box. The sinterized nickel boxes acts as electromagnetic shield. Thus, these are the not-exposed cultures. Exposition tests were carried out for three and six hours; the electromagnetic field intensity into the cell cultures was simulated by a numerical code. The exposed and not-exposed cultures were analysed after the tests. The paper focused to the analysis of thermophysical properties of the cultures (density, viscosity, specific heat). The analysis was carried out in order to verify if the exposition induced alterations of such properties. Besides, other branches of this research verified possible variations in the biomedical properties of the cultures. Results showed that the exposition at 144 MHz electromagnetic fields does not modify the thermophysical properties of the thymic cultures in the tested conditions.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11391/145737
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