Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A study on effects of cell phone tower–emitted non-ionizing radiations in an Allium cepa test system

  • Research
  • Published:
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Considering enormous growth in population, technical advancement, and added reliance on electronic devices leading to adverse health effects, in situ simulations were made to evaluate effects of non-ionizing radiations emitted from three cell phone towers (T1, T2, and T3) of frequency bands (800, 1800, 2300 MHz), (900, 1800, 2300 MHz), and (1800 MHz), respectively. Five sites (S1–S5) were selected near cell phone towers exhibiting different power densities. The site with zero power density was considered as control. Effects of radiations were studied on morphology; protein content; antioxidant enzymes like ascorbate peroxidase (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), guaiacol peroxidase (POD), and glutathione reductase (GR); and genotoxicity using Allium cepa. Mean power density (μW/cm2) was recorded as 1.05, 1.18, 1.6, 2.73, and 12.9 for sites 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. A significant change in morphology, root length, fresh weight, and dry weight in Allium cepa was observed under the exposure at different sites. Protein content of roots showed significant difference for samples at all sites while bulbs at sites S4 and S5 when compared to control. Antioxidant activity for root in terms of APX, GST, and POD showed significant changes at S4 and S5 and GR at site S5 and SOD at S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5. Similarly, bulbs showed significant changes at sites S4 and S5 for APX while at sites S3, S4, and S5 for POD and S2, S3, S4, and S5 for SOD and S5 for GR and GST. Genotoxicity study has shown induction of abnormalities at different stages of the cell cycle in Allium cepa root tips. The samples under exposure to radiation with maximum power density have shown maximum induction of oxidative stress and genotoxicity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data will be made available on reasonable request.

References  

  • Alege, G. O., Ojo, B. H., Ifenji, G. I., Kachi, J. B., Tawose, F. O., Glen, E., & Oladimeji, E. O. (2022). Cytogenetic effects of radiation from projector on meristematic cells of Allium cepa (onions) root. Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, 26(4), 737–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atak, C., Emiroglu, O., Alikamanoglu, S., & Rzakoulieva, A. (2003). Stimulation of regeneration by magnetic field in soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) tissue cultures. Journal of Cell and Molecular Biology, 2(2), 113–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlberg, I. N. C. E. R., & Mannervik, B. E. N. G. T. (1975). Purification and characterization of the flavoenzyme glutathione reductase from rat liver. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 250(14), 5475–5480.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chandel, S., Kaur, S., Singh, H. P., Batish, D. R., & Kohli, R. K. (2017). Exposure to 2100 MHz electromagnetic field radiations induces reactive oxygen species generation in Allium cepa roots. Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure, 5(4), 225–229.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chandel, S., Kaur, S., Issa, M., Singh, H. P., Batish, D. R., & Kohli, R. K. (2019). Exposure to mobile phone radiations at 2350 MHz incites cyto-and genotoxic effects in root meristems of Allium cepa. Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering, 17, 97–104.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Corson, L. B., Folmer, J., Strain, J. J., Culotta, V. C., & Cleveland, D. W. (1999). Oxidative stress and iron are implicated in fragmenting vacuoles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking Cu, Zn-superoxide dismutase. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 274(39), 27590–27596.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dasdag, S., & Akdag, M. Z. (2016). The link between radiofrequencies emitted from wireless technologies and oxidative stress. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, 75, 85–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Souza Pohren, R., da Costa, T. C., & Vargas, V. M. F. (2013). Investigation of sensitivity of the Allium cepa test as an alert system to evaluate the genotoxic potential of soil contaminated by heavy metals. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 224, 1–10.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, S. S., & Tuteja, N. (2010). Reactive oxygen species and antioxidant machinery in abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 48(12), 909–930.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grant, W. F. (1999). Higher plant assays for the detection of chromosomal aberrations and gene mutations—a brief historical background on their use for screening and monitoring environmental chemicals. Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis, 426(2), 107–112.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Habig, W. H., & Jakoby, W. B. (1981). Assays for differentiation of glutathione S-transferases. Methods in enzymology, 77, 398–405. Academic press.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hyland, G. J. (2000). Physics and biology of mobile telephony. The Lancet, 356(9244), 1833–1836.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kono, Y. (1978). Generation of superoxide radical during autoxidation of hydroxylamine and an assay for superoxide dismutase. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 186(1), 189–195.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, G., & Srivastava, N. (2011). Genotoxic effects of two commonly used food additives of boric acid and sunset yellow in root meristems of Trigonella foenum-graecum. Journal of Environmental Health Science & Engineering, 8(4), 361–366.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, A., Kaur, S., Chandel, S., Singh, H. P., Batish, D. R., & Kohli, R. K. (2020). Comparative cyto-and genotoxicity of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz electromagnetic field radiations in root meristems of Allium cepa. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 188, 109786.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lowry, O. H., Rosebrough, N. J., Farr, A. L., & Randall, R. J. (1951). Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 193, 265–275.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marjanovic, A. M., Pavicic, I., & Trosic, I. (2012). Biological indicators in response to radiofrequency/microwave exposure. Arhiv Za Higijenu Rada i Toksikologiju, 63(3), 407–415.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nakano, Y., & Asada, K. (1981). Hydrogen peroxide is scavenged by ascorbate-specific peroxidase in spinach chloroplasts. Plant and Cell Physiology, 22(5), 867–880.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pesnya, D. S., & Romanovsky, A. V. (2013). Comparison of cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of plutonium-239 alpha particles and mobile phone GSM 900 radiation in the Allium cepa test. Mutation Research/genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, 750(1–2), 27–33.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Qureshi, S. T., Memon, S. A., Abassi, A. R., Sial, M. A., & Bughio, F. A. (2017). Radiofrequency radiations induced genotoxic and carcinogenic effects on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) root tip cells. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 24(4), 883–891.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez, M., Revilla, G., & Zarra, I. (1995). Changes in peroxidase activity associated with cell walls during pine hypocotyl growth. Annals of Botany, 75(4), 415–419.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Senevirathna, M. D. H. J., Nagahage, I. S. P., & Muhetaer, G. (2020). Stimulatory effect of exposure to low-power-density 2.45 GHz microwaves on Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in vitro. Brazilian Journal of Botany, 43, 459–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sepehrimanesh, M., Nazifi, S., Saeb, M., & Kazemipour, N. (2016). OJVRTM. Online Journal of Veterinary Research, 20(9), 617–624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, V. P., Singh, H. P., Kohli, R. K., & Batish, D. R. (2009). Mobile phone radiation inhibits Vigna radiata (mung bean) root growth by inducing oxidative stress. Science of the Total Environment, 407(21), 5543–5547.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, S., Bahel, S., & Kaur Katnoria, J. (2023). Evaluation of oxidative stress and genotoxicity of 900 MHz electromagnetic radiations using Trigonella foenum-graecum test system. Protoplasma, 260(1), 209–224.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, H. P., Sharma, V. P., Batish, D. R., & Kohli, R. K. (2012). Cell phone electromagnetic field radiations affect rhizogenesis through impairment of biochemical processes. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 184, 1813–1821.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Speit, G., Schütz, P., & Hoffmann, H. (2007). Genotoxic effects of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) in cultured mammalian cells are not independently reproducible. Mutation Research: Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, 626(1–2), 42–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stefi, A. L., Margaritis, L. H., & Christodoulakis, N. S. (2017). The effect of the non-ionizing radiation on exposed, laboratory cultivated maize (Zea mays L.) plants. Flora, 233, 22–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tambiev, A. K., & Kirikova, N. N. (2000). Effect of EHF radiation on metabolism of cyanobacteria Spirulina platensis and other photosynthesizing organisms. Critical Reviews™ in Biomedical Engineering, 28(3&4), 589–602.

  • Tkalec, M., Malaric, K., Pavlica, M., Pevalek-Kozlina, B., & Vidaković-Cifrek, Z. (2009). Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields on seed germination and root meristematic cells of Allium cepa L. Mutation Research: Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, 672(2), 76–81.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Upadhyaya, C., Patel, I., Upadhyaya, T., & Desai, A. (2021). Exposure effect of 900 MHz electromagnetic field radiation on antioxidant potential of medicinal plant Withania somnifera. Inventive Systems and Control: Proceedings of ICISC 2021 (pp. 951–964). Springer Singapore.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Upadhyaya, C., Upadhyaya, T., & Patel, I. (2022). Exposure effects of non-ionizing radiation of radio waves on antimicrobial potential of medicinal plants. Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences, 15(1), 1–10.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

The authors received financial support from the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan 2.0 (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, 143005, India

    Ankita Sharma, Surbhi Sharma & Jatinder Kaur katnoria

  2. Department of Electronics Technology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, 143005, India

    Shalini Bahel

Authors
  1. Ankita Sharma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Surbhi Sharma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shalini Bahel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jatinder Kaur katnoria
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Ankita Sharma: Investigation, Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft. Surbhi Sharma: Formal analysis. Shalini Bahel: Resources, review & editing.

Jatinder Kaur: Resources, Supervision, Data curation, Writing—review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jatinder Kaur katnoria.

Ethics declarations

Ethical responsibilities of authors

All authors have read, understood and compiled the manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

No ethical approval is required for present work.

Consent for publication

All authors approved the present publication.

Competing interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sharma, A., Sharma, S., Bahel, S. et al. A study on effects of cell phone tower–emitted non-ionizing radiations in an Allium cepa test system. Environ Monit Assess 196, 261 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12435-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12435-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation