Subject:  DNA damage and microwave radiation (Bishop).
Date:     Thu, 25 Jan 2001 171236 -0600
From:     Roy Beavers 
To:       guru@emfguru.com
--------------------------------------------------

.......From EMF-L.......

I hope that the many "doubters" who are controlling the decisions about
public exposure (like the municipal authorities) will take the following
to a medical person (or scientist) whom they know and trust ... to help
explain the significance of this report.......guru... 

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: DNA damage and microwave radiation
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 13:30:53 -0800
From: "Dr. Ivan S. Bishop" 
Reply-To: isb@forscotland.com
To: guru@emfguru.com

Roy, this comes from http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/wjk/mwaves.html
The most interesting points are [1] a mechanism where covalent bonds CAN
be broken in DNA at microwave (wireless carrier) frequencies

[2] points out that although DNA has a superb repair mechanism, that mechanism
could be overwhelmed (LAST paragraph)

Of course the 900MHz to 2Gig band is where all our friendly neighbourhood
wireless array elements operate.


Cheers
Ivan

--------------------

DNA and the Microwave Effect

Can microwaves disrupt the covalent bonds of DNA? The fundamentals of
thermodynamics and physics
indicate this is impossible. Numerous studies have concluded that there is no
evidence to support
the existence of the 'Microwave Effect', and yet, some recent studies have
demonstrated that
microwaves are capable of breaking the covalent bonds of DNA. The exact nature
of this phenomenon is
not well understood, and no theory currently exists to explain it. This report
summarizes the
history of the controversy surrounding the microwave effect, and the latest
research results.
The effectiveness of microwaves for sterilization has been well established by
numerous studies over
the previous decades (Latimer 1977, Sanborn 1982, Brown 1978, Goldblith 1967).
The exact nature of
the sterilization effect and whether it is due solely to thermal effects or to
the 'microwave
effect' has been a matter of controversy for decades.

The dielectric effect on polar molecules has been known since 1912 (DeBye 1929).
Polar molecules are
those which possess an uneven charge distribution and respond to an
electromagnetic field by
rotating. The angular momentum developed by these molecules results in friction
with neighboring
molecules and converts thereby to linear momentum, the definition of heat in
liquids and gases.
Because the molecules are forced to rotate first, there is a slight delay
between the absorption of
microwave energy and the development of linear momentum, or heat. There are some
minor secondary
effects of microwaves, including ionic conduction, which are negligible in
external heating.
Microwave heating is, therefore, not identical to external heating, at least at
the molecular level,
and the existence of a microwave effect is not precluded simply because the
macroscopic heating
effects of microwaves are indistinguishable from those of external heating. 

During the 1930s the effects of low frequency electromagnetic waves on
biological materials were
studied in depth by physicists, engineers and biologists. Studies of the effects
of microwaves on
bacteria, viruses and DNA were performed in the 1960s and included research on
heating, biocidal
effects, dielectric dispersion, mutagenic effects and induced sonic resonance.
Some of the early
biophysicists investigating microwave absorption claimed evidence of a
'microwave effect' which was
distinct in its biocidal effects from the effects of external heating (Barnes
1977, Cope 1976, Furia
1986). Most biologists in turn claimed there was no evidence of a microwave
effect and that the
biocidal effects of microwaves were either due entirely to heating or were
indistinguishable from
external heating (Goldblith 1967, Lechowich 1969, Vela 1978, Jeng 1987, Fujikawa
1991, Welt 1994).
These experiments were repeated with increased sophistication right up to the
present with the
majority consensus being that the microwave effect did not exist. 

These experiments typically fell into two categories, 'controlled temperature'
experiments and 'dry'
experiments. In the controlled temperature experiments the researchers
controlled the temperature of
the irradiated specimen through various timing, pulsing or cooling techniques
(Welt 1994, Lechowich
1968). For example, Welt (1994) investigated the effects of microwave
irradiation on Clostridium
spores and found no additional lethality caused by microwaves that could not be
accounted for by
conventional heating. However, spores may not be representative of microwave
irradiation effects on
active growing bacterial cells. The results of this and other experiments showed
that controlling
the temperature prevented biocidal effects, and this was taken as conclusive
evidence that the
microwave effect did not exist. However, the assumption that the microwave
effect is independent of,
and separable from, temperature was always implicit in these studies, but was
never acknowledged.

The second type of experiment, the dry experiment, also contains unacknowledged
assumptions. Studies
have shown that in the absence of water or moisture, biocidal effects of
microwaves are severely
diminished, or require considerably longer exposures (Jeng 1987, Vela 1979).
This was typically
taken as evidence that nonthermal microwave effects did not exist, however,
since water is the
primary medium by which microwaves are converted to heat, the absence of
biocidal effects in the
absence of water would only indicate that water is necessary for sterilization
whether or not
heating is the cause. Furthermore, the possibility that the specific frequency
used, 2450 MHz, only
affects water and not bacteria or spores was overlooked. DNA has a dielectric
dispersion, where
microwaves are readily absorbed, at much lower frequencies than water (Takashima
1984). The
experiments may simply be indicating that the wrong frequency is being used for
targeting 'dry'
bacteria and spores. 

Most of the studies mentioned above concluded that the microwave effect, if it
existed, was
indistinguishable from the effects of external heating. However, it was recently demonstrated
(Kakita 1995) that the microwave effect is distinguishable from external heating
by the fact that it
is capable of extensively fragmenting viral DNA, something that heating to the
same temperature did
not accomplish. This experiment consisted of irradiating a bacteriophage PL-1
culture at 2450 MHz
and comparing this with a separate culture heated to the same temperature. The
survival percentage
was approximately the same in both cases, but evaluation by electrophoresis and
electron microscopy
showed that the DNA of the microwaved samples had mostly disappeared. In spite
of the evolving
complexity of all the previous experiments, electrophoresis had not been used to
compare irradiated
and externally heated samples prior to this. Electron microscopy had been used
to study the
bacteriocidal effects of microwaves (Rosaspina 1993, 1994) and these results
also showed that
microwaves had effects that were distinguishable from those of external heating. 

The energy level of a microwave photon is only 10-5 eV, whereas the energy
required to break a
covalent bond is 10 eV, or a million times greater. Based on this fact, it has
been stated in the
literature that "microwaves are incapable of breaking the covalent bonds of DNA"
(Fujikawa 1992,
Jeng 1987), but this has apparently occurred in the Kakita experiment, even
though this may be only
an indirect effect of the microwaves. There is, in fact, plenty of evidence to
indicate that there
are alternate mechanisms for causing DNA covalent bond breakage without invoking
the energy levels
of ionizing radiation (Watanabe 1985, 1989, Ishibashi 1982, Kakita 1995, Kashige
1995, Kashige 1990,
1994). Still, no theory currently exists to explain the phenomenon of DNA
fragmentation by
microwaves although research is ongoing which may elucidate the mechanism
(Watanabe 1996). 

The microwave frequency used in the Kakita study was the standard 2450 MHz used
in conventional
microwave ovens. This is the same frequency that was used in essentially all
prior studies, except
for the earliest studies (which looked at lower frequencies), and sonic resonant
studies, which
looked at much higher frequencies. The early studies showed that DNA tended to
absorb microwave
radiation "in the kilocycle range" (Takashima 1963, 1966, Grant 1978, Grandolfo
1983), but no
biocidal effects in the range of 1 MHz to 60 MHz were observed. One notable
exception, however, was
an early experiment which found that frequencies between 11 and 350 MHz had
lethal effects on
bacteria, with a peak at 60 MHz (Fleming 1944). As far as could be determined,
the contradiction
between the results of Fleming and those of Takashima has never been resolved or
re-addressed. In
any event, there is no evidence in these studies to indicate any undue attention
was paid to control
the actual absorbed dose or the precise geometry of the irradiation cell, and
therefore the
differences in the results of these investigators may reflect differences in
their cell geometries,
among other things.

In summary, it would seem there is reason to believe that the microwave effect
does indeed exist,
even if it cannot yet be adequately explained. What we know at present is
somewhat limited, but
there may be enough information already available to form a viable hypothesis. 


A Theory of Microwave Induced DNA Covalent Bond Breakage
A review of the data from the various referenced experiments shows a common
pattern -- for the first
few minutes of irradiation there is no pronounced effect, and then a cascade of microbial
destruction occurs. The data pattern greatly resembles the dynamics of a
capacitor; first there is
an accumulation of energy, and then a catastrophic release. It may simply
indicate a threshhold
temperature has been reached, or it may indicate a two-stage process is at work.
The second stage of
this process may very well be the accumulation of oxygen radicals, which would
certainly seem to be
primary suspects as they have a considerable propensity for dissociating the
covalent bonds of DNA.
Oxygen radicals can be generated by the disruption of a hydrogen bond on a water
molecule. Water
molecules exist alongside DNA molecules as "bound" water, two or three layers
thick. These water
molecules share a hydrogen bond with component atoms of the DNA backbone,
including carbon, nitrogen
and other oxygen atoms. At any given point in time one of the hydrogen atoms may
be primarilly
bonded to either an oxygen atom on the water molecule, or to an oxygen (or
other) atom on the DNA
backbone. The fluctuating character of these shared and exchanged bonds is
enhanced by temperature
and by the dynamics induced by microwaves. Although the amount of oxygen
radicals which may be
produced by this process cannot presently be determined, the production of some
number of oxygen
radicals is inevitable in these circumstances. It must be noted here though,
that most of the oxygen
radicals produced in this manner would exist only briefly, as they would almost
immediately bond to
the nearest available site. If this site is an oxygen atom on the DNA backbone,
we get a covalent
bond break, albeit probably only a brief one. Although DNA tends to repair
itself naturally, the
simultaneous breakage of a sufficient number of covalent bonds would lead to a
catastrophic failure
of the entire DNA molecule. Due to the exceedingly large number of bonds
involved, the matter boils
down to a reproducible function of pure probabilities. In other words, after a
set and reproducible
amount of time determined by probability functions, you would expect to see DNA
disintegration. And
so, what we have is a two-stage process of DNA covalent bond breakage resulting
from oxygen radicals
generated by microwave irradiation. That is the theory, and it awaits
experimental verification. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com