Behaviour and Reproduction of Drosophila Melanogaster Exposed to 3.5 GHz Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields - Underlying data

Insects are exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by wireless telecommunication networks. A part of these fields will be absorbed inside of these insects. This absorption might have biological effects, depending on the amount of absorbed power. It is currently unknow at what level of absorption this might occur. To investigate this, we used RF dosimetry of adult D. melanogaster flies, which we combined with two assays studying the locomotor activity and fecundity of D. melanogaster exposed to electromagnetic fields at 3.6 GHz. To perform dosimetry, we created a 3D digital model of an adult fly using micro-CT scans of a female D. melanogaster. We used this model in numerical EM simulations to estimate the absorbed power in the fly as a function of RF frequency in the far field of an antenna and during the two experimental assays at 3.6 GHz. No effects were found on locomotor activity for a five-day exposure to 3.6 GHz between 5.4 and 9 V/m, which correspond to 3.56 nW to 9.88 nW of absorbed power. We also did not find any effects on fecundity, at an absorption level of 1.91 mW during 48h at 3.6 GHz during 48h. In our future work, we aim to investigate this exposure at higher frequencies and for immature stages as well.