Tear ferning test and ph of the tears at cell phone users

Abstract

Electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones and other modern devices has potentially harmful effects on ocular surface. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the phone mobile on the tear film and to make an analysis of the changes that occur on the ocular surface after using the mobile phone. For this study, we selected a total of 55 subjects, young, healthy, without chronic treatment, who are not contact lens wearers and who have no history of ophthalmic surgery. Tear pH and tear ferning test (TFT) were performed on all subjects before and after being exposed to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the mobile phone for 5 minutes. Following the analysis of the obtained results, electromagnetic fields generated from high frequency microwave radiation modifies pH of the tear film and quality of tears, leads to damaging effect on the tear film and ocular surface.