A Review of the Mechanisms of Interaction Between the Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields and Human Biology

Abstract-Studies of the biological effects and any health related consequences of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) have been going on for over half a century however with contradictory outcomes. Hence, it is now necessary to stress on standardizing the EMF-health research experiment procedures in order to enable such experiments become replicable and results comparable. In 1998, a review of several of the ELF EMF human biological interaction mechanisms regarding field intensities and frequencies was presented to the Australian Radiation Laboratory of Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health in 1988 by Andrew W. Wood. Wood's 1988 assertion of the importance of understanding the interaction mechanisms did not alter even after a decade when the NIEHS RAPID (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/) gathering of world experts produced their statement, in which quoted, there have been experiments on possible mechanism/s in support or refutation of the various proposals however none were replicated. Valberg (Valberg et al., 1997) also summed up some but failed to include all the claimed proposed mechanisms at the time. This paper is to present a complete list of the allegedly possible interaction mechanisms to date. This paper will also report on an academic research on computer modeling of biological effects of ELF EMF using one of the proposed mechanisms. The research reported here has generally aimed at modeling the proposals using computer. The initial phase of this effort has concentrated on Ca effect as the number of publications referencing that was considerable. Calcium is a key element in the biological performance of every organ in the human body. Thus it deemed imperative to study the effect of EMF on Ca channels of a living cell. Furthermore, considerations for setting standards in EMF experimental research protocols are recommended. Developing a standard protocol allows results of future experiments to be comparable; and, the chance of replicability in EMF-health improve, which this aspect has indisputably been absent in EMF research projects thus far. Replication is desirable mainly because it eliminates bias, artifact and systematic errors. Replication is almost impossible in the case of epidemiological studies however in experimentation is possible if the details are specified in full. To authenticate any effect of MF, it is not satisfactory to present experimental results without reporting the experimental settings in their entirety