Non-thermal bioeffects induced by low-intensity microwave irradiation of living systems

Attention is drawn to a multitude of frequency-specific, nonthermal bioeffects-induced in living systems by ultra-low-intensity microwave radiation-the existence of which is not currently taken into account in the formulation of the safety limits to which microwave devices must conform. An attractive possibility of accounting for these effects is in terms of Frohlich's coherent excitations involving strongly excited macroscopic electric polarisation waves, which, on quite general grounds, he predicted living systems to support-provided they are sufficiently active metabolically-in consequence of the prevalence therein of electric dipoles of various kinds. The therapeutic exploitation of low-intensity microwave irradiation in Russia and the Ukraine is noted, and attention drawn to some recent theoretical work which suggests that water (a dipolar system in its own right) might itself support mesoscopic coherent domains.