Estimation of exposure time to GSM-900 radiation causing auditory brainstem response changes in rabbits using neuro-fuzzy system

The wide and growing usage of cellular phones has raised questions about the possible health risks associated with radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields. Since it is very difficult to accurately measure and quantify the RF exposure level for all individuals, it would be helpful for epidemiologists and cellular phone users to obtain a time estimate of specific radiation exposure generating health problems. In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS) was developed to estimate GSM-900 radiation exposure time causing specific electrophysiological time-related changes in auditory pathway. The proposed system, exploiting available experimental results for auditory brainstem response changes in rabbits due to mobile phone radiation exposure, resulted in about 90% of correct time recognitions. Thus we have proved, on one hand the short-term effect of mobile phone usage to subjects' auditory pathway, and on the other hand that it is possible to build an automated system detecting satisfactory the radiation exposure time. This system can be very useful, as it provides reliable exposure assessment, even though it is unsafe to extrapolate neurological data from nonhuman in vivo experiments.