Nonthermal biological effects of microwaves: Current knowledge, further perspective, and urgent needs

The aim of this article is to present an overview of diverse biological effects of nonthermal microwaves (NT MWs) and complex dependence of these effects on various physical and biological parameters. Besides well-known dependencies on frequency and modulation, the available data suggest dependencies of the NT MW effects on intermittence and coherence time of exposure, polarization, genotype, gender, physiological and individual factors, static magnetic filed, electromagnetic stray field, cell density during of exposure, and indicate that duration of exposure may be more important than PD for the NT MW effects. Further evaluation of these dependencies are needed for understanding the mechanisms by which NT MWs affect biological systems, eventual poor reproducibility of the NT MW effects, planning in vivo and epidemiological studies, developing medical treatments, setting safety standards, and minimizing the adverse effects of MWs from mobile communication.