Wireless Devices and Plant Growth

I have heard on TV and from other people, that cellphones and wireless for computers are bad for your health and can cause diseases and cancer, and that they are bad for the environment. For my project, I wanted to find out if the kinds of wireless things I have in my house were causing an effect. I decided to test on plants that are growing, because it would be too hard to measure changes in humans.

Background Research

To find out why people think cell phones and wireless devices are a risk to living things, I read about it on the Internet. I discovered that these devices use radio frequencies which are called RF for short. RF is a  type of radiation that has a low frequency and it is part of the electromagnetic field. Many people think that the radiation has a harmful effect on cells of people, plants and animals and can hurt growth and health of cells. There is especially a lot of concern about the wireless devices we use everyday like cellular phones and wireless computers because of how much we use them.

Problem

I had to plan my experiment to have a control group that would have the least amount of RF possible so I could compare the results of the plants growing close to a lot of RF and plants growing with no RF. I also had to learn about what items in my home generate RF.

Hypothesis

I think the plants growing near strong RF will not grow as much or look as healthy as the other ones. I think they will be shorter and less green.

Materials

• 150 green lentils
• 3 280 ml plastic containers
• 1 roll paper towels
• 1 30ml plastic measuring cup
• Audiovox 8615VCM Mobile Phone
• Linksys WRT160N Wireless Router
• HP Photosmart R827 Digital Camera
• Acer laptop computer
• notebook and paper
• ink pen, pencil and pencil crayons
• Computer programs
• Paintshop Pro 9
• NVU and CUTE HTML Editor
• Firefox Web Browser
• CUTE FTP
• Open Office

Procedure

I  chose to do my experiment using lentil seeds that were not sprouted because they grow quickly and easily. I did not want to use full grown plants in case the time that they grew before the experiment would change the result.  

My experiment lasted 7 days.

Variables

To make sure everything is the same I counted 50 lentil seeds for each group.  I put each group in three identical plastic containers that had the same amount of paper towel under the seeds and on top to keep them moist. I wet the paper towels with the same measured amount of water.

All three groups were in rooms that had the same lighting and temperature. Every day at the same time I gave each group the same measured amount of water and recorded the progress and took a picture of the lentil sprouts.

Observations Day 1

On day 1 all the groups were the same. The lentil seeds looked like they were soaking up water and swelling but nothing was growing.

Observations Day 2

On day 2 all the groups were the same. The lentil seeds has a little white dot on the outside edge and many looked like the skin of the seed was coming off. All three groups looked like the seeds were starting to germinate and there were no big differences between the groups.

Observations Day 3

On day 3 groups 1 and 3 are very similar. The skin of the lentils have mostly fallen off and the root that looked like a white dot before is longer and is curling down into the wet paper towel. Some have another sprout that is very small starting to point up. Group 2 has not changed very much from yesterday.

Observations Day 4

On day 4 groups 1 and 3 are very similar. The root is longer and curls down into the wet paper towel. Most now have another sprout starting to point up. Some of the sprouts that point up are green on the tips. Group 2 has not changed very much from yesterday. Group 2 seems to be behind the other two and growing much more slowly. The contained seems more dry and the lentils look more dry too.

Observations Day 5

On day 5 groups 1 and 3 are very similar but group 1 seems to be growing the fastest. The root is longer and thicker in groups 1 and 3. Most lentils in groups 1 and 3 have leaves that are bright green. Group 2 seems to be behind the other two and growing much more slowly and poor. The lentils in group 2 look dry even though the same amount of water is added. The tiny leaves in group 2 look sikly like a paler almost brown green.

Observations Day 6

On day 6 groups 1 and 3 are still very similar but group 1 seems to be growing better. The stalks on the sprouts are thicker and the leaves are bright green and look healthy and strong. The root is longer and thicker in groups 1 and 3 than yesterday. Group 2 is still behind the other two and growing much more slowly and poor. The lentils in group 2 look dry even though the same amount of water is added and they do not look very good.

Observations Day 7

On day 6 groups 1 and 3 are still very similar but group 1 seems to be growing better. The stalks on the sprouts are thicker and the leaves are bright green and look healthy and strong. The root is longer and thicker in groups 1 and 3 than yesterday. Group 2 is still behind the other two and growing much more slowly and poor. The lentils in group 2 look dry even though the same amount of water is added and they do not look very good.

Discussion

I thought the control group would grow the most and be the most healthy looking but group 1 the phone group had longer average grown and looked greener and darker. The group that did the worst was the wireless router group 2. Group 2 was also more dry and so I am not sure if it was because of the RF or because of the room it was in was more dry than than the phone group and the control. I would like to try this experiment again maybe and monitor the humudity of the rooms each group are in to remove that Variable. I had expected the control group to do the best but it didn't grow as much as the phone group and that surprised me since the phone had the highest RF output according to the US Federal Communications Commision.

Conclusion

I conclude that my in my experiment the RF did not have a negative effect on plant growth. The mobile phone sprouts did the best even though they were exposed to the highest RF. The poor results for the router sprouts was maybe caused by dryness of the room or maybe heat generated from the router. I would like to try this experiment again with larger groups of sprouts and controlled moisture conditions to compare the results more accurately.

References

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html 

University of Regina - Faculty of Science  Summa Cum Laude