IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i9p1849-d166053.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of a Single 30-Min Long Term Evolution Mobile Phone-Like Exposure on Thermal Pain Threshold of Young Healthy Volunteers

Author

Listed:
  • Zsuzsanna Vecsei

    (Department of Non-ionizing Radiation, National Public Health Institute, H-1221 Budapest, Hungary
    Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Pécs, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary)

  • György Thuróczy

    (Department of Non-ionizing Radiation, National Public Health Institute, H-1221 Budapest, Hungary)

  • István Hernádi

    (Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Pécs, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary
    Szentágothai Research Center, and Center for Neuroscience, University of Pécs, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary
    Institute of Physiology, Medical School, University of Pécs, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary)

Abstract

Although the majority of mobile phone (MP) users do not attribute adverse effects on health or well-being to MP-emitted radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs), the exponential increase in the number of RF devices necessitates continuing research aimed at the objective investigation of such concerns. Here we investigated the effects of acute exposure from Long Term Evolution (LTE) MP EMFs on thermal pain threshold in healthy young adults. We use a protocol that was validated in a previous study in a capsaicin-induced hyperalgesia model and was also successfully used to show that exposure from an RF source mimicking a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) MP led to mildly stronger desensitization to repeated noxious thermal stimulation relative to the sham condition. Using the same experimental design, we did not find any effects of LTE exposure on thermal pain threshold. The present results, contrary to previous evidence obtained with the UMTS modulation, are likely to originate from placebo/nocebo effects and are unrelated to the brief acute LTE EMF exposure itself. The fact that this is dissimilar to our previous results on UMTS exposure implies that RF modulations might differentially affect pain perception and points to the necessity of further research on the topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Zsuzsanna Vecsei & György Thuróczy & István Hernádi, 2018. "The Effect of a Single 30-Min Long Term Evolution Mobile Phone-Like Exposure on Thermal Pain Threshold of Young Healthy Volunteers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-12, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:9:p:1849-:d:166053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/9/1849/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/9/1849/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nihal S. Ouadah & Kelly Blazy & Anne-Sophie Villégier, 2020. "Effect of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields on Thermal Sensitivity in the Rat," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Maria Rosaria Scarfì & Mats-Olof Mattsson & Myrtill Simkó & Olga Zeni, 2019. "Special Issue: “Electric, Magnetic, and Electromagnetic Fields in Biology and Medicine: From Mechanisms to Biomedical Applications”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-3, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:9:p:1849-:d:166053. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.