Abstract
Numerous
studies have been conducted to understand the effect of radio frequency (RF)
signals normally emitted by cell phones on living organisms. Few studies however
addressed the effects on plants which are easier to study and whose cells have
a basic structure very similar to those of animals and humans – thus we can use
the results on plants to understand the effects on humans. We conducted a study
to determine if direct RF radiation from a cell phone influences the growth of a
tomato plant. Unlike other studies, our
work focused on the correlation of plant growth with the distance from the cell
phone antenna. We found that the plants exposed to the RF radiation grew taller
and more massive than the unexposed plants.
In addition, we observed two trends of growth indicating a cut-off of
the Near-Field region. In the Near-Field region, the plants were affected more
by the RF radiation as the distance increased from the cell phone antenna in
opposite trend to what is expected from the Far-Field region in which the
electromagnetic wave is fully established, and its effect dies down as the
distance increased from the wave source.
Keywords: Cell Phone effects, RF radiation