Figure - available from: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Transmission electron micrographs of testes in mice. a Sham-exposed group. The modality and configuration of the spermatogenic cell were in a normal state, with a round nucleus and abundant cytoplasm. Many organelles such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticula were contained in the cytoplasm. The mitochondria showed regular shapes with clear cristae (arrow). b SEF-exposed group. Cristae losses in mitochondria (arrow) of the spermatogenic cells are shown
Source publication
With the development of ultra-high-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) transmission technology and increase in transmission voltage, the issue of environmental static electric field (SEF) pollution is standing out and its possible health effects have caused much public attention. In this study, the effects of chronic exposure to SEF on reproductive capa...
Citations
... SEF exposure A device of SEF exposure was the same as that used by Wu et al. (2017) and Xu et al. (2018). It is composed of a controller, a booster system, and upper and lower plates. ...
With the rapid development of ultra-high-voltage (UHV) direct-current (DC) transmissions, the impact of static electric fields (SEF) in the vicinity of overhead UHV DC transmission lines on health has aroused much public concern. This study explored the effects of 56.3kV/m SEF on the spleen of mice. Results showed that SEF exposure of 21days significantly increased malonic dialdehyde content, superoxide dismutase activity, calcineurin activity, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, and the mRNA expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in the spleen and caused the separation of nucleus and nuclear membrane, the disappearance of mitochondrial membrane, and the deficiency of mitochondrial cristae in splenic lymphocytes. By analysis and discussion, it was deduced that SEF could induce oxidative stress of the spleen by increasing the activity of NOS. Oxidative stress could further cause ultrastructural changes of splenic lymphocytes. Moreover, oxidative stress could cause the increase of the mRNA expression levels of TNF-α and NF-κB, which contributed to the occurrence of spleen inflammation.
... However, as reported in [3], usage of overhead high voltage transmission lines in transmitting electricity is not without its disadvantage as a result of the large areas and distances it covers and other negative impacts it produces. One of the disadvantages of overhead high voltage transmission lines is that the electric and magnetic fields generated by overhead transmission lines during power transmission have been identified as a major cause of diverse health risks and safety [4][5][6][7][8][9], environmental risks [10] and biological effects [8] in the society. ...
... However, as reported in [3], usage of overhead high voltage transmission lines in transmitting electricity is not without its disadvantage as a result of the large areas and distances it covers and other negative impacts it produces. One of the disadvantages of overhead high voltage transmission lines is that the electric and magnetic fields generated by overhead transmission lines during power transmission have been identified as a major cause of diverse health risks and safety [4][5][6][7][8][9], environmental risks [10] and biological effects [8] in the society. ...
The primary objective of this paper is to assess and predict the health risk potential of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) emitted from high voltage power transmission lines (HVPTLs) in Akure metropolis, Nigeria. The assessment was conducted using BENETECH GM3120 Electromagnetic Radiation Tester to measure both the electric field strength and magnetic flux density emitted from 33 kV, 132 kV, 132/330 kV and 330 kV power transmission lines within the metropolis. The data collected were analysed and compared with limiting tolerable values by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines for both occupational and the general public. The comparative result shows that the maximum measured electric field strength and magnetic flux density in this study are lower than 40% of the limiting tolerable values in ICNIRP guidelines. Thus, the result of this study has shown clearly that the emitted ELF-EMFs from HVPTLs is not strong enough to cause any adverse effect health on human. In addition, analysis of the measured data also shows that the emitted ELF-EMFs from the HVPTLs vanish completely at about 60 m radius from the transmission lines, which implies that 60 m radius from transmission lines is an ideal experimental shortest possible distance residential building and people should be from HVPTLs in order to reduce the exposure level of people to EMFs radiations from HVPTLs.
... In general, 50Hz electric field exposure experiments can be carried out in the actual environment or in a laboratory simulation environment [8,9]. The former can directly use 50Hz electric field environment generated by the actual UHV transmission line, but it cannot exclude the interference of other environmental factors such as meteorological conditions and air pollution, which would result in degradation of experimental accuracy. ...
A main way to investigate the biological effects of 50Hz electromagnetic field is to conduct animal experiments by using the simulating device of 50Hz electromagnetic field. In order to determine the exposure strength of experimental animals in rearing cages in simulating device more accurately, the distribution of electric field should be simulated. Based on ANSYS, a software of finite element analysis, we simulated two-dimensional (2D) electric field distribution of the proposed simulating device of high voltage 50Hz electric field for a case when there were no rearing cages, and we validated those simulation results by comparison with actual measurements. Additionally, we simulated three-dimensional (3D) electric field distribution in the rearing cages for the cases when there was one rearing cage and when there were 8 rearing cages in the simulating device respectively. The simulation results showed that distribution of 50Hz electric field in rearing cage was not uniform when there were rearing cages in the simulating device, and the maximum difference was about 9kV/m. Therefore, based on the movement tracking of animals and the distribution of 50Hz electric field in rearing cages, the cumulative exposure dose of experimental animals could be determined accurately through integral method in order to increase the accuracy of experiments.
... Groups of n=10 male 4-week old ICR mice were continuously exposed to SEF for 7, 14, and 21 days, another n=10 mice/time point served as non-exposed controls. (The exposure unit was the same as used by Wu et al. (2017); compare 13 th Council report (2019).) Following 7, 14 or 21 days of SEFexposure, blood was taken, and the following parameters determined: White and red blood cell count (WBC and RBC), haemoglobin concentration (Hb), differential blood count (NE%, LYM%, MO%, EO%, BAS%). ...
... Since similar to humans, C57BL/6 mice are susceptible to acute pneumonitis and subsequent chronic fibrosis at post-irradiation time-points, a responsible clinical use of MRI-guided radiation therapy systems (MRIgRT) must be ensured. Lin et al. (2018) aimed to examine in a further experiment (compare 13 th Council report, SSM 2019, Wu et al. (2017)) whether static electric field (SEF) induce health risks in liver. Male 4-week old ICR mice were exposed up to 35 days (24 h/d) to SEF-intensities of 27.5, 34.7 and 56.3 kV/m. ...
... HVPTLs have become globally necessary components of power transmission infrastructure, covering 5.5 million km in 2014, with predictions that this will increase to 6.8 million km in 2020 [3]. Likewise, the development of HVPTL in China is expected to increase, to reduce electricity transmission energy losses, since long distances exist between power stations and end-users [4]. With the rapid growth of the electricity grid, HVPTLs will inevitably cover more complex environments, such as mountains and forests, compared to plains and cultivated lands [5]. ...
... The transmission of electricity covers large areas and can produce many negative impacts [9]. Consequently, the possible impacts of HVPTL have attracted considerable public attention [2,10], including risks to health and safety due to electric and magnetic fields [4,11], environmental risks from electromagnetic fields [10], biological effects of electromagnetic fields [4], visual and perception impacts [5,8], and property values [2]. For example, Tong et al. [11] studied the effects of the electric field of a 500 kV overhead transmission line on a building and found that high-voltage cables can generate intense electric fields and the fields vary across locations of buildings relative to their overhead cable. ...
... The transmission of electricity covers large areas and can produce many negative impacts [9]. Consequently, the possible impacts of HVPTL have attracted considerable public attention [2,10], including risks to health and safety due to electric and magnetic fields [4,11], environmental risks from electromagnetic fields [10], biological effects of electromagnetic fields [4], visual and perception impacts [5,8], and property values [2]. For example, Tong et al. [11] studied the effects of the electric field of a 500 kV overhead transmission line on a building and found that high-voltage cables can generate intense electric fields and the fields vary across locations of buildings relative to their overhead cable. ...
The rapid growth of the network of high-voltage power transmission lines (HVPTLs) is inevitably covering more forest domains. However, no direct quantitative measurements have been reported of the effects of HVPTLs on vegetation growth. Thus, the impacts of HVPTLs on vegetation growth are uncertain. Taking one of the areas with the highest forest coverage in China as an example, the upper reaches of the Minjiang River in Fujian Province, we quantitatively analyzed the effect of HVPTLs on forest landscape fragmentation and vegetation growth using Landsat imageries and forest inventory datasets. The results revealed that 0.9% of the forests became edge habitats assuming a 150 m depth-of-edge-influence by HVPTLs, and the forest plantations were the most exposed to HVPTLs among all the forest landscape types. Habitat fragmentation was the main consequence of HVPTL installation, which can be reduced by an increase in the patch density and a decrease in the mean patch area (MA), largest patch index (LPI), and effective mesh size (MESH). In all the landscape types, the forest plantation and the non-forest land were most affected by HVPTLs, with the LPI values decreasing by 44.1 and 20.8%, respectively. The values of MESH decreased by 44.2 and 32.2%, respectively. We found an obvious increasing trend in the values of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in 2016 and NDVI growth during the period of 2007 to 2016 with an increase in the distance from HVPTL. The turning points of stability were 60 to 90 meters for HVPTL corridors and 90 to 150 meters for HVPTL pylons, which indicates that the pylons have a much greater impact on NDVI and its growth than the lines. Our research provides valuable suggestions for vegetation protection, restoration, and wildfire management after the construction of HVPTLs.
... SEF exposure was performed using the device described by Wu et al. (2017). The device was composed of three parts, a control unit, a voltage step-up and rectification unit and two 3m-diameter electrodes. ...
... SEF exposure and PFEF exposure were carried out separately. The exposure duration in previous studies on electric field effects varied from a few hours (Hori et al., 2015) to several months (Seto et al., 1986), and exposure duration of 49 days was chosen in recent researches (Wu et al., 2017;Xu et al., 2018). Thus, 49 days were chosen as exposure durations of SEF and PFEF in this study. ...
... Exposure to static electric field. The exposure to SEF was performed using the self-made high-voltage device described by Wu et al. 18 . Specifically, the device was mainly composed of four parts, two electrode plates, a voltage step-up unit, a rectifying unit and a control unit, as shown in Fig. 1 19 . ...
... Destefanis et al. 36 found that electromagnetic fields can increase the membrane potential of mitochondrial in several kinds of cancer cells and lead to an enhancement of mitochondrial activity. Wu et al. 18 exposed male mice to SEF with intensity of 56 kV/m for 49 days and found a loss of cristae in some mitochondria of spermatogenic cells, which could directly change the mitochondrial membrane potential. Iorio et al. 37 also reported that the exposure of electromagnetic field could increase the mitochondrial membrane potential in sperm. ...
With the development of ultra-high-voltage direct-current transmission, the intensity of static electric field (SEF) under transmission lines increased, which has aroused public attention on its potential health effects. In order to examine effects of SEF exposure on liver, institute of cancer research mice were exposed to SEF with intensities of 27.5 kV/m, 34.7 kV/m and 56.3 kV/m, respectively. In each intensity of SEF exposure, a corresponding sham exposure group was used. Several indices relating to liver function (aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT)) and oxidative stress (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and malondialdehyde (MDA)) were tested after exposure of 7, 14, 21 and 35 days. Results showed that exposure to SEF with intensities of 27.5 kV/m and 34.7 kV/m for 35 days did not significantly influence any detected indices above. Under SEF exposure with intensity of 56.3 kV/m, the SOD activity in liver was significantly increased after exposure of 7 and 14 days. However, no significant increase was found in MDA content as well as the activities of AST and ALT between exposure group and sham exposure group during SEF exposure of 56.3 kV/m. It suggested that from three SEF intensities, only exposure to SEF with intensity of 56.3 kV/m (7 and 14 days) caused a temporary oxidative stress response in liver expressed by the increase in activity of SOD, but it did not produce oxidative damage. This biological effect may be related to the increase of mitochondrial membrane potential of hepatocytes caused by SEF exposure. When the membrane potential exceeds a threshold, Q cycle in mitochondria will be affected, which will result in an increase of superoxide anion concentration and ultimately an oxidative stress.
... SEF exposure device was the same as that used by Wu et al. (2017). It consisted of a boost unit, a rectifier unit, a control unit and an electrode unit. ...
