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. 2017 Jan 23;15(1):1559325816688527.
doi: 10.1177/1559325816688527. eCollection 2017 Jan-Mar.

Evaluation of the Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation Emitted From Wi-Fi Router and Mobile Phone Simulator on the Antibacterial Susceptibility of Pathogenic Bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli

M Taheri  1 , S M J Mortazavi  2 , M Moradi  1 , S Mansouri  1 , G R Hatam  3 , F Nouri  4
Affiliations

Evaluation of the Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation Emitted From Wi-Fi Router and Mobile Phone Simulator on the Antibacterial Susceptibility of Pathogenic Bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli

M Taheri et al. Dose Response. .

Abstract

Mobile phones and Wi-Fi radiofrequency radiation are among the main sources of the exposure of the general population to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). Previous studies have shown that exposure of microorganisms to RF-EMFs can be associated with a wide spectrum of changes ranged from the modified bacterial growth to the alterations of the pattern of antibiotic resistance. Our laboratory at the nonionizing department of the Ionizing and Non-ionizing Radiation Protection Research Center has performed experiments on the health effects of exposure to animal models and humans to different sources of electromagnetic fields such as cellular phones, mobile base stations, mobile phone jammers, laptop computers, radars, dentistry cavitrons, magnetic resonance imaging, and Helmholtz coils. On the other hand, we have previously studied different aspects of the challenging issue of the ionizing or nonionizing radiation-induced alterations in the susceptibility of microorganisms to antibiotics. In this study, we assessed if the exposure to 900 MHz GSM mobile phone radiation and 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from common Wi-Fi routers alters the susceptibility of microorganisms to different antibiotics. The pure cultures of Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli were exposed to RF-EMFs generated either by a GSM 900 MHz mobile phone simulator and a common 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi router. It is also shown that exposure to RF-EMFs within a narrow level of irradiation (an exposure window) makes microorganisms resistant to antibiotics. This adaptive phenomenon and its potential threats to human health should be further investigated in future experiments. Altogether, the findings of this study showed that exposure to Wi-Fi and RF simulator radiation can significantly alter the inhibition zone diameters and growth rate for L monocytogenes and E coli. These findings may have implications for the management of serious infectious diseases.

Keywords: Wi-Fi; antibiogram; bacteria; radiofrequency radiation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Inhibition zone diameters preexposure and postexposure to radiofrequency (RF) simulator radiation for Escherichia coli.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Inhibition zone diameters preexposure and postexposure to Wi-Fi radiation for Escherichia coli.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Inhibition zone diameters preexposure and postexposure to radiofrequency (RF) simulator radiation for Listeria monocytogenes.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Inhibition zone diameters preexposure and postexposure to Wi-Fi radiation for Listeria monocytogenes.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Growth curves in Escherichia coli broth medium preexposure and postexposure.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Growth curves Listeria monocytogenes in broth medium preexposure and postexposure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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