Review date
May 2024
Article publication date
March 2024
Summary
This review report published on behalf of the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) aims to inform health risk assessment of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). It included different study types (in vitro, animal, human and epidemiological) published in the year 2021 related to several EMF exposure types (static, low frequency or extremely low frequency, intermediate and radio frequency fields). A variety of outcomes (DNA damage, oxidate stress, animal behaviour, animal physiology, human cancer, reproduction, etc.) associated with EMF exposure were assessed. This report did not identify any new established causal relationships between EMF exposure and health risk. For example, epidemiological studies on static EMFs (e.g., from MRI) are limited and hence underlying mechanisms for rarely observed associations due to effect of static fields are unclear. The recent studies on extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic field exposure do not provide any evidence whether the consistently observed association between ELF and childhood leukaemia is causal or not. Similarly, no definite conclusions can be drawn from a recent study on intermediate EMF exposure and human health effects. Several new studies on brain tumours and mobile phone use largely continue to provide no indication of health risk.
Link to
Published In
Swedish Radiation Safety Authority
ARPANSA commentary
The overall conclusion of the report is similar to the conclusions provided in the previous years’ reports from the SSM. The strength of this report is that it was reviewed by a multidisciplinary team of experts evaluating a range of EMF exposure types and health-related endpoints, reviewing various types of evidence. Therefore, it consolidates all emerging evidence generated in the year 2021 while presenting its review findings.
The findings of the report are consistent with the health risk advice from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), and other national and international organisations. For example, the health advice of ARPANSA on ELF-MF and radiofrequency field exposure, and the health risk assessment of radiofrequency fields by the US Food and Drug Administration on RF-EMF and Cancer, are in line with the findings from the report. The World Health Organization is currently assessing available evidence on potential human health effects of radiofrequency field exposure, including that associated with mobile phone use. ARPANSA is supporting this process to inform evidence-based health risk assessment of EMF exposures.
