Background: Increased utilization of electricity and rapid urbanization has caused a greater part of the community to be exposed to extremely low frequency (ELF) fields. Detrimental effects of power frequency fields produced by man-made sources have been notified during the last few decades.
Objective: To detect whether any plausible link exists between exposure to ELF electric field and human health. The effects of ELF electric field (ELF-EF) on liver, kidney, and lipid profiles of Wistar rats were explored.
Materials and Methods: Eighteen Wistar rats with an average age of 2 months were divided into two experimental groups and a control group. The animals were exposed to an electric field of 1.5 kV/m. The first group was exposed for 6 h/day for five consecutive days. The second experimental group was exposed for 6 h/day for 10 consecutive days. Biochemical levels at the end of each exposure period were measured.
Result: The exposure to ELF-EF significantly increased the serum urea and SGOT levels (p < 0.05). SGPT, total protein, albumin, and globulin levels were elevated significantly after 30 h exposure, which decreased nonsignificantly for an exposure period of 60 h. Lipid levels did not show any significant difference between the groups. Serum urea, SGPT, SGOT, albumin, and globulin levels increased after the exposure.
Conclusion: Strength and exposure duration of EFs were found to play an important role in inducing internal fields and initiating biological variations. Elevation in levels indicates a probable link between the exposure of ELF-EF and liver and kidney function parameters. These results were further used to calculate the human equivalent fields.
Key words: Extremely low frequency (ELF), health effects, electromagnetic fields (EMF), lipids, liver, kidney
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