Review date
July 2024
Article publication date
June 2024
Summary
This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the current evidence on the association between radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure and female pregnancy outcomes in human epidemiological studies. A total of 18 studies (eight on general public exposure and 10 on occupational exposure) were identified for this evaluation. The studies had RF-EMF exposure measures in terms of self-reported mobile phone use, measured distance to mobile base station (for general public exposures); and measurements and/or expert assessment or exposure modelled based on job-exposure matrices (for occupational exposures). The pregnancy outcomes considered included pre-term birth, small for gestational age (SGA), miscarriage, stillbirth. The associations between RF-EMF exposure and the outcomes were examined in terms of pooled relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). The synthesis of evidence was conducted according to the OHAT guidelines. For general public studies, maternal mobile phone exposure was not associated with pre-term birth risk (RR 1.14, 95 % CI: 0.97–1.34), or low birth weight (RR 1.14, 95 % CI 0.96–1.36), there was an association with SGA (RR 1.13, 95 % CI 1.02–1.24). For occupational studies, no association between maternal RF-EMF exposure and miscarriage (RR 1.06, 95 % CI 0.96–1.18), congenital anomalies (OR 1.06, 95 % CI 0.85–2.32), pre-term birth (RR 1.19, 95 % CI 0.32–4.37) or low birth weight (RR 2.90, 95 % CI 0.69–12.23) were found. Both the general public and occupational findings were low to very low certainty evidence. Overall evidence from review and meta-analysis indicates no or little association between maternal RF-EMF exposure and pregnancy outcomes in general public and occupational populations.
Link to
Published in
Environment International
Commentary by ARPANSA:
The review provides state-of-the art methods on investigating whether maternal RF-EMF exposure is related to adverse pregnancy outcomes in the general and working populations. The included studies in the review have numerous limitations, including use of exposure surrogates (e.g., self-reported time spent on mobile phones or mobile phone use). The analysis of evidence on the association resulted in low-or very low-certainty mainly due to risk of bias, inconsistencies, indirectness, and imprecisionin the included studies. This report indicates that there is no substantiated evidence that maternal RF-EMF exposure (below the public and occupational limits described in the ICNIRP guidelines) causes adverse reproductive outcomes in female populations. This is in line with the public health message of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) on RF-EMF exposure and health. The RF-EMF exposures in Australia are generally far below the limits given in the Australian Safety Standard (e.g., RPS-S1) and the ICNIRP guidelines. The Australian Safety Standard, developed by ARPANSA, is consistent with the ICNIRP guidelines and is based on validated international scientific evidence. Further, the findings reinforce the assessment of ARPANSA that there is no substantiated evidence that RF-EMF exposures at levels below the limits set in the Australian standard cause any adverse health effects. The review forms a part of the World Health Organization’s ongoing project to assess potential health effects of RF-EMF in the general and working population and ARPANSA is supporting this process.
