ABSTRACT
From the end of the twentieth century to the present century, our living environment became more densely filled with electromagnetic waves. The main cause of this phenomenon has been the rapid development of cell phones and wireless LANs, along with the establishment of mobile phone base stations worldwide. Furthermore, acceleration of 70communication technologies and rapid spread of wireless power supplies (wireless energy transmission) by radio waves are anticipated in the coming years. Consequently, in the society of the near future, in addition to static magnetic fields (SMFs), extremely low-frequency waves (ELFWs), and radio frequency waves (RFWs), a wide variety of electromagnetic changes will occur in our environment in the regions of intermediate-frequency waves (IFWs), millimeter waves (MMWs), and terahertz waves (THWs). As in the case of ionizing radiation (IR), the electromagnetic environment is invisible, and many people are concerned about the influence of electromagnetic waves on health. The history of full-scale research on this topic is very shallow in comparison to the literature on health effects of IR. Here, we focus on cellular research on the biological effects of high-frequency electromagnetic waves, and summarize the results of published research, mainly in regard to RFWs. We also describe reports of research on the cellular effects of MMWs and THWs, which have received increasing attention in recent years. In order to classify the frequency range of these electromagnetic waves in a simple manner, RFWs are defined as several hundred MHz to 10 GHz, MMWs as 10–100 GHz, and THWs as 100 GHz (0.1 THz) or more.
