BANGALORE: Mobile phones have grabbed the headlines for a number of unpleasant reasons, from allegations of causing brain tumours to blowing up petrol bunks.
Now a study by the Punjab University says mobile phones can cause crop damage too.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Department of Environment and Vocational Studies, Punjab University, kicked up a fair amount of dust when it found that mobile phone radiation inhibits mung bean root growth by inducing oxidative stress.
What prompted the research team to search off the beaten path? A new phenomenon in environmental pollution — unnatural amount of electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere.
According to the researchers, the tremendous increase in the use of cell phones has “significantly added to the rapidly increasing EMF smog, an unprecedented type of pollution consisting of radiation in the environment.” The effects of the smog on humans and the eco system are still being studied.
They investigated whether electromagnetic radiation from cell phones inhibit the growth of mung bean. “Our results showed that cell phone radiation significantly inhibited the germination and radicle and plumule growths in mung bean in a time-dependant manner,’’ the researchers said.
Does this mean that by chattering away on your cell phone you are damaging some farmer’s crop or plants in your neighbourhood? Hold your horses.
Experts recommend that before jumping into such a sweeping generalisation about the real world scenario, much more research needs to be done.
“The seeds were kept between two cell phones at a distance of about 8 cm away. Clearly, any effect that is found cannot be generalised to large distances and longer exposure times,” an evolutionary ecologist and environment conservationist who did not wish to be named, as the domain is a different one, told Express.