The Influence of Electromagnetic Wave Exposure on Human Airway

Hazardous and unhealthy environmental changes are rising continuously in modern society due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. In addition to environmental contamination, interest on electromagnetic wave(EMF) is also increasing. EMF is reported in a lot of papers to cause DNA damage, infertility, oxidative stress, cell cycle change, apoptosis, gene expression abnormality, tumorigenesis and intracellular calcium change. Human respiratory secretions including mucus, wastes and impurity are removed by mucociliary transport system which includes ciliary transport and mucous secretion system. This system is very important in clearance and defense mechanism protecting human respiratory mucosal surface against various particles i.e. bacteria, virus, chemical odorant particles. Cilia beat like automatic “sweeping broom” with its pivotal axis located at mucosal surface, therefore, plays dynamic role in this mucociliary transport system showing relatively constant cilia beat frequency (CBF: 10~20/sec) This study focuses on the effects of EMF on human respiratory CBF.