A systematic review of the evidence of genotoxicity of RF electromagnetic fields from in vitro studies on mammalian cells

A systematic review of experimental studies investigating genotoxic effects induced by RF-EMF in in vitro cellular models was carried out based on a structured protocol, defined and validated a priori. Bibliographic search was conducted in three databases (Pubmed, Web of Science, EMF-Portal), and 151 studies were included in the review after the assessment of compliance with the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Relevant data regarding bibliographic information, experiment features and results were extracted from each study, and the quality of studies was rated based on the outcome of the risk of bias assessment. The experiments extracted from the included studies were characterized by a high variability of the parameters considered (cell types, endpoint analyzed, etc.), which precluded the possibility to perform a meta-analysis. Despite that, it was possible to aggregate data and develop descriptive statistics. The results showed that 80% of experiments did not report effects of RF exposures, whereas in 20% statistically significant differences were found between exposed and unexposed cultures. It also emerged that only a few studies reporting significant effects were at low risk of bias, and a dose-response relationship between the onset of effects and exposure conditions was ruled out. From this analysis, it is possible to infer about absence of elements in favor of an association between RF exposure and genotoxicity in mammalian cells. Furthermore, although the number of publications on this subject has considerably increased, the quality of the experimental methodologies still needs to be improved.