Effects of co-exposure to 900 MHz radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and high-level noise on sleep, weight, and food intake parameters in juvenile rats. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bosquillon de Jenlis, Aymar; Del Vecchio, Flavia; Delanaud, Stéphane; Bach, Véronique; Pelletier, Amandine
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 256(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: RF-EMF -- Noise -- Juvenile rat -- Sleep -- Food intake; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113461
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Electrohypersensitive people attribute various symptoms to exposure of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF); sleep disturbance is the most frequently cited. However, laboratory experiments have yielded conflicting results regarding sleep alterations. Our hypothesis was that exposure to RF-EMF alone would lead to slight or non-significant effects but that co-exposure to RF-EMFs and other environmental constraints (such as noise) would lead to significant effects. Methods: 3-week-old male Wistar rats (4 groups, n = 12 per group) were exposed for 5 weeks to continuous RF-EMF (900 MHz, 1.8 V/m, SAR = 30 mW/kg) in the presence or absence of high-level noise (87.5 dB, 50–20000 Hz) during the rest period. After 5 weeks of exposure, sleep (24 h recording), food and water intakes, and body weight were recorded with or without RF-EMF and/or noise. At the end of this recording period, sleep was scored during the 1 h resttime in the absence of noise and of RF-EMF exposure. Results: Exposure to RF-EMF and/or noise was associated with body weight gain, with hyperphagia in the noise-only and RF-EMF + noise groups and hypophagia in the RF-EMF-only group. Sleep parameters recording over 24 h highlighted a higher frequency of active wakefulness in the RF-EMF-only group and a lower non-rapid eye movement/rapid eye movement sleep ratio during the active period in the noise-only group. There were no differences in sleep duration in either group. During the 1-h, constraint-free sleep recording, sleep rebound was observed in the noise-only group but not in the RF-EMF-only and RF-EMF + noise groups. Conclusion: Our study showed effects of RF-EMF, regardless of whether or not the animals were also exposed to noise. However, the RF-EMF + noise group presented no exacerbation of those effects. Our results did not support the hypothesis whereby the effects of RF-EMF on physiological functions studied are only visible in animals exposed to both noise and RF-EMF. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Exposure to radiofrequency increased body weight with small sleep perturbations. Exposure to noise increased body weight with deleterious sleep perturbations. The co-exposure between radiofrequency and noise did not exacerbate the effects.