Summary
The reports described in this chapter involve the effects of EMF on metabolism, growth, and reproduction. When they are considered in conjunction with the previous three chapters, it becomes clear that there is no biological function which can be said to be impervious to nonthermal EMFs-they are a fundamental and pervasive factor in the biology of every living organism. The nature, extent, and physiological significance of the effects to be expected in different organisms, and their dependence on the spectral characteristics of the field remain, for the most part, to be determined by future studies. We have no doubt that some of the reports described here are erroneous in the sense that some investigators have reported effects that ultimately will be found to be artifacts or statistical anomalies. But this is true with regard to every area of biological experimentation-the mathematical precision of the physical sciences is simply unattainable. It means only that the details regarding the biological effects of specific EMFS have not been established with certainty, and it does not detract form the fundamental point that the nonthermal EMF is a physiologically active agent. The scope of the observed effects, and some of the factors which influence them, are shown in Figure 8.4.
Fig. 8.4. The physiological effects of EMFs.
Although the point has frequently been disputed in the stormy controversy that has developed regarding some of the practical implications of our conclusion (56-60), it is nonetheless true that a biological phenomenon need not be understood at the molecular level as a prior condition to the acceptance of its existence by science. On the other hand, every biological phenomenon obviously has some molecular basis, and the reports of the biological effects of EMFs will not be fully satisfactory until their molecular basis is either established or shown to be unknowable. Some progress has been made in understanding the origin of EMF-induced biological effects, and this work is described in the next chapter.