Radiation literature survey

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This measurement study quantified the ELF MF produced from ultrasound devices in clinical settings. The ELF MF levels were measured during prenatal ultrasound monitoring (under the patient bed and on clinician’s chest) and during patient consultation (on the chair where patient is sitting). The ELF MF exposure levels from all situations were below 0.2 µT which is a thousand times below the current international guidelines for limiting public exposure.

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This measurement study quantified the EMF levels emitted from the equipment employed in a solar farm. The conversion of solar to electric power involves a series of inverters and transformers that may result in high ELF MF level in close proximity. The highest ELF MF levels measured were directly adjacent to transformers and inverters, which were close to but still below the general public limit set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP, 2010 (PDF 641 kb)). However, at 30 centimetres from the transformer surface, the ELF MF level dropped to 5 times lower than the ICNIRP’s general public limit.

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This study investigated the effects of occupational RF EMF exposure from radar on plasma catecholamine in military workers. A total of 166 subjects participated in the study; 68 people in the control group, 40 people in the first group exposed to X-band EMF (frequency range of 8-12 gigahertz, GHz) and 58 people in the second group exposed to Ku-band EMF (12.5-18 GHz). The power density of RF RMF varied from 0.5-1.5% and 0.2-31% of the occupational limits in the Australian RF Standard, for the first and second exposure group, respectively. The study did not find any significant variation between the exposure group and their respective control group for any catecholamine type, except for adrenaline in the second exposure group.

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This is a case-control study which looked into the association between pituitary tumour and mobile phone use, which was conducted as part of the Interphone study. A total of 80 cases and 240 controls were recruited in the study and were compared for their mobile phone use. The study found a reduced risk of pituitary tumour with regular mobile phone use (odds ratio, OR = 0.39, 95% confidence interval, 95% CI = 0.21 – 0.72), and mobile phone use of 10 years or more (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.25 – 1.89). The authors conclude that there was no increased risk of pituitary tumour related to mobile phone use. They note that the reduced risks may be related to selection bias among the controls (i.e. greater participation of controls that have higher mobile phone use).

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This is a review by the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSM) on scientific studies published from October 2013 to September 2014 investigating electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health. The key topics discussed were the association between extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) and childhood leukaemia and health risks from use of mobile phones and from environmental transmitters (such as mobile phone base stations). The report mentioned that recent studies suggesting an association between ELF-MF exposure and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease, warrant further investigation.

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Overall, the report by SSM did not reveal any new findings to support a causal association between EMF exposure and adverse health effects.

For ELF fields the same conclusion from previous reports still holds – associations between ELF MF and childhood leukaemia have been observed but a causal relationship has not been established. For radiofrequency (RF) fields, new studies with improved exposure assessment did not indicate any health risks for the general public in relation to RF exposure from environmental transmitters, such as base stations and radio and TV transmitters.

The conclusions of the SSM report are consistent with other recent health risk assessments e.g. the Health Protection Agency in 2012 on Health Effects from RF EMF and the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) in 2013 and 2015 on potential health effects of EMF.

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This is a prospective cohort study that assessed whether the exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields (EMF) from electric blankets is associated to thyroid cancer. The cohort comprised of 89,527 women aged 50-79, recruited at 40 clinical centers throughout the United States between 1993 and 1998. The information on the use of electric blankets was collected at the start of recruitment and the cohort was followed for over 12 years. No association was found between ever using electric blankets and thyroid cancer (Hazard ratio, HR = 0.98, 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.72-1.32). Using electric blankets more frequently did not increase the risk of thyroid cancer. The authors conclude that these results do not support that using electric blankets increases the risk of thyroid cancer.

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There is not a lot of epidemiological data on ELF EMF exposure and thyroid cancer to date. There have been several studies investigating ELF EMF and other hormone-sensitive cancers especially breast cancer. Several reviews including the World Health Organization (WHO) health risk assessment in 2007 on ELF fields concluded that there is no established evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies that ELF magnetic fields (MF) increase the risk of breast cancer (WHO, 2007).

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This animal study investigated whether short-term exposure to ELF MF affects the nervous system. Rats were exposed to ELF-MF at 50 Hz, at a level of 0.3 millitesla (mT) (one and a half times the public exposure limit of international guidelines). The study did not find any significant changes in the physiological parameters of the nervous systems that were monitored.

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This is a nested case-control study where the association between occupational exposure to ELF-MF and electrical shocks and leukaemia was investigated. From a cohort of 14.9 million adults, a total of 5,409 acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cases were matched with 27,045 controls. The exposure to ELF-MF and risk of electrical shocks were assessed using job-exposure matrices. The authors concluded that there is no association between occupational exposure to neither ELF-MF nor electrical shocks and AML.

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Thiscase-cohort study looked into the association between dementia and occupational exposures to solvents, pesticides, metals, ELF-MF, and many other risk factors. The cohort consisted of 120,852 subjects, aged between 55 and 69 years, living in the Netherlands. After a follow-up period of 17.3 years, 682 male and 870 female cases were available. The authors found positive association between a type of dementia and occupational exposures to three risk factors combined - metals, chlorinated solvents and ELF-MF - which seemed driven by metals (HR = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.98 - 1.86).

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This is a cohort study that looked into the possibility of any association between pregnancy outcomes and parental RF EMFexposure to mobile phones. The cohort included more than 100,000 pregnancies from all over Norway, recruited during 1999-2009. Two sets of questionnaires mainly asking about mobile phone use were handed out to the expectant mothers during gestational week 15 and 30. Expectant fathers were also given a questionnaire during gestational week 15. The responses were then assessed against the pregnancy outcomes identified from the birth registry. The authors found no association between parental mobile phone exposure and any of the studied pregnancy outcomes.

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According to a report by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) in 2015, the investigations on RF EMR exposure from mobile phones and reproductive outcomes have not been informative. This is mainly due to methodological limitations including confounding i.e. uncontrolled lifestyle factors. The committee concluded that it is not possible to weigh the evidence due to a lack of informative studies. It is important to note that the study by Baste et al which is a large prospective cohort study, did not find an association.