DNA effects of low level occupational exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (50/60 Hz)

Abstract

Aims:

Exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) occurs from natural and artificial sources. Although ELF-MF has been classified as a suspected humans carcinogen agent by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, little is known of the effects of ELF-MF at lower exposure levels of the recommended range. In the present study, DNA damage in the peripheral blood cells of power line workers was investigated.

Materials and Methods:

Occupational exposure to ELF-MF in a power plant was measured using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) manual. Single-strand breaks (SSBs) in DNA were evaluated in 29 male utility workers as the exposed population and 28 male support personnel as the control subjects using the comet assay. Effects of ELF-MF on subjects were evaluated using DNA percent in tails, tail length, olive length, and tail moment.

Results:

Occupational exposure levels to ELF-MF in the utility workers were less than the threshold limit values (TLV) recommended by the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH). The median value of the magnetic field at the working sites was 0.85 µT. Induction of DNA damage was observed for the exposed workers compared with the controls. Olive length, tail moment, and tail DNA percent increased significantly (p < 0.05) in the utility workers.

Conclusions:

Exposure to ELF-MF at levels less than the ACGIH exposure limit can produce DNA strand breaks.

Keywords

ELF-MF comet assay DNA damages occupational exposure

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ACGIH (2015) TLVs and BEIs, Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices. USA: ACGIH.

Albert

Mcnamee

Marro

. (2009) Assessment of genetic damage in peripheral blood of human volunteers exposed (whole-body) to a 200 µT, 60 Hz magnetic field. International Journal of Radiation Biology 85(2): 144–152.

Ansari

Farzampour

Sadr

. (2016) Effects of short term and long term extremely low frequency magnetic field on depressive disorder in mice: involvement of nitric oxide pathway. Life Sciences 146: 52–57.

Bowman

Kelsh

Kaune

(1998) Manual for Measuring Occupational Electric and Magnetic Field Exposures (#401). October 1998 Ed. Washington: US Department of Health and Human Services.

Collins

Azqueta

(2012) DNA repair as a biomarker in human biomonitoring studies; further applications of the comet assay. Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis 736(1): 122–129.

Collins

(2004) The comet assay for DNA damage and repair. Molecular Biotechnology 26(3): 249.

Collins

(2014) Measuring oxidative damage to DNA and its repair with the comet assay. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects 1840(2): 794–800.

Demers

Thomas

Rosenblatt

. (1991) Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and breast cancer in men. American Journal of Epidemiology 134(4): 340–347.

Dominici

Villarini

Fatigoni

. (2011) Genotoxic hazard evaluation in welders occupationally exposed to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF). International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 215(1): 68–75.

10.

Gourzoulidis

Tsaprouni

Skamnakis

. (2016) Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields—the situation in Greece. Physica Medica 32: 276.

11.

Gyori

Venkatachalam

Thiagarajan

. (2014) OpenComet: an automated tool for comet assay image analysis. Redox Biology 2: 457–465.

12.

Havas

(2000) Biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic energy: a critical review of the reports by the US National Research Council and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as they relate to the broad realm of EMF bioeffects. Environmental Reviews 8(3): 173–253.

13.

Havas

(2017) When theory and observation collide: Can non-ionizing radiation cause cancer? Environmental Pollution 221: 501–505.

14.

Hellman

Vaghef

Boström

(1995) The concepts of tail moment and tail inertia in the single cell gel electrophoresis assay. Mutation Research/DNA Repair 336(2): 123–131.

15.

Huss

Spoerri

Egger

. (2018) Occupational extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) exposure and hematolymphopoietic cancers–Swiss National Cohort analysis and updated meta-analysis. Environmental Research 164: 467–474.

16.

IARC (2002) IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, vol. 80. Non-Ionizing Radiation, Part 1: Static and Extremely Low-frequency (ELF) Electric and Magnetic Fields. Lyon: IARC.

17.

Jalilian

Teshnizi

Röösli

. (2018) Occupational exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields and risk of Alzheimer disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurotoxicology 69: 242–252.

18.

Lai

(2014) Extremely-Low Frequency EMF Free Radical Studies. Available at: http://www.bioinitiative.org/research-summaries/ (accessed September 2018).

19.

Liburdy

Sloma

Sokolic

. (1993) ELF magnetic fields, breast cancer, and melatonin: 60 Hz fields block melatonin’s oncostatic action on ER+ breast cancer cell proliferation. Journal of Pineal Research 14(2): 89–97.

20.

Moretti

Villarini

Simonucci

. (2005) Effects of co-exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields and benzene or benzene metabolites determined in vitro by the alkaline comet assay. Toxicology Letters 157(2): 119–128.

21.

Mozaffarieh

Schoetzau

Sauter

. (2008) Comet assay analysis of single–stranded DNA breaks in circulating leukocytes of glaucoma patients. Molecular Vision 14: 1584–1588.

22.

Olive

Banáth

(2006) The comet assay: a method to measure DNA damage in individual cells. Nature Protocols 1(1): 23.

23.

Rashand

(2017) ImageJ 1.50i. Bethesda: National Institutes of Health.

24.

Ruiz-Gómez

Martínez-Morillo

(2009) Electromagnetic fields and the induction of DNA strand breaks. Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 28(2): 201–214.

25.

Singh

McCoy

Tice

. (1988) A simple technique for quantitation of low levels of DNA damage in individual cells. Experimental Cell Research 175(1): 184–191.

26.

Svedenstål

Johanson

Mild

(1999) DNA damage induced in brain cells of CBA mice exposed to magnetic fields. In Vivo (Athens, Greece) 13(6): 551–552.

27.

Tofani

Ferrara

Anglesio

. (1995) Evidence for genotoxic effects of resonant ELF magnetic fields. Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics 36(1): 9–13.

28.

Touitou

Djeridane

Lambrozo

. (2012) Long-term (up to 20 years) effects of 50-Hz magnetic field exposure on blood chemistry parameters in healthy men. Clinical Biochemistry 45(6): 425–428.

29.

Touitou

Djeridane

Lambrozo

. (2013) Long-term (up to 20 years) effects of 50-Hz magnetic field exposure on immune system and hematological parameters in healthy men. Clinical Biochemistry 46(1): 59–63.

30.

Tynes

Andersen

Langmark

(1992) Incidence of cancer in Norwegian workers potentially exposed to electromagnetic fields. American Journal of Epidemiology 136(1): 81–88.

31.

Verschaeve

Wambacq

Anthonissen

. (2016) Co-exposure of ELF-magnetic fields and chemical mutagens: an investigation of genotoxicity with the SOS-based VITOTOX test in Salmonella typhimurium. Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis 795: 31–35.

32.

Vijayalaxmi Prihoda

(2009) Genetic damage in mammalian somatic cells exposed to extremely low frequency electro-magnetic fields: a meta-analysis of data from 87 publications (1990–2007). International Journal of Radiation Biology 85(3): 196–213.

33.

Zendehdel

Jouni

Hajipour

. (2017) DNA damage in workers exposed to formaldehyde at concentrations below occupational exposure limits. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry 99(9–10): 1–16.

34.

Zhang

Zhu

. (2017) Resveratrol may reverse the effects of long-term occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields on workers of a power plant. Oncotarget 8(29): 47497.