Abstract
With every new generation, cell phones and smartphones are becoming a greater part of daily lives. These advancements, however, come at a price. GSM cell phones communicate through electromagnetic wave signals, which are well known to be harmful to most living forms, but to what extent? Plattsburgh State scholars have studied the damaging effects of the prolonged use of cellphones, specifically on Paramecia tetraurelia, by correlating changes in size and speed to amount of exposure to Global System for Mobile communtication (GSM) radiation. With a regular 900 MHz GSM phone on stand-by in their setup, to replicate the real life environment as close as possible, scholars found that the closer the subjects are to the exposure source, the more devastating the effects. Paramecia tetraurelia morphology changed after exposure, Paramecia became wider and shorter, the internal organelles showed signs of bloating and subjects appeared to lose agility. Some unfortunate individuals were unable to endure these harsh condition and cell membranes of the Paramecia disintegrated. Results suggest that the cellular membranes are the radio waves’ main victims. When taking human beings into consideration, damage to cell membranes would have drastic effects on the nervous system.
