Publication date:
January 2025
Published in:
Bioelectromagnetics
ARPANSA review:
22 March 2025
Summary
This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed whether mobile phone associated electromagnetic fields (EMF) affect brain activity measurements such as resting state wake electroencephalogram (EEG) and event‐related potentials (ERP). A total of 51 studies were included in the review and 12 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The effect of EMF exposure on the outcomes of EEG and ERP measurements as well as visual and auditory discrimination was investigated. A risk of bias (ROB) assessment was undertaken for the included studies. Meta-analysis results were estimated as standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The meta-analysis showed that mobile phone exposure related to 2G significantly affected the alpha band of the EEG [SMD 0.16 (95% CI: 0.01 to 0.32)]. For the other assessed outcomes such as visual discrimination and auditory discrimination, the meta-analysis did not show significant results. The ROB assessment of the included studies mostly showed either moderate or high risk indicating some concerns. Further, a meta‐analysis for most outcomes could not be conducted due to large heterogeneity among studies.
Commentary by ARPANSA:
This review and meta-analysis presented in the article indicate that EMF exposure affects the alpha band of the EEG. Alpha band oscillations are a distinctive feature of the EEG when awake and play a prominent role in human brain activity (Klimesch, 1999). However, the review and meta-analysis present some notable limitations. Some studies included in the review did not report appropriate measures of RF-EMF exposure (e.g., power density or specific absorption rate). This compromises RF-EMF characterisation in the included studies however the ROB assessment tool used in this study does not seem to address this (Sterne et al., 2019). The review also did not undertake a certainty in evidence assessment, which is an important aspect of a properly conducted systematic review. As noted in the article, future studies should be performed with more robust experimental designs such as adhering to the methodological standard of randomized experiments, double blinding and improved EMF exposure characterisation. Without these improvements, the scientific basis for substantiating other human physiological effects of EMF may continue to be inadequate.
Based on the current scientific evidence, and consistent with the findings of this review, it is the assessment of ARPANSA that there is no substantiated evidence that mobile phone use (resulting in radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposures at levels below the limits set in the ARPANSA Safety Standard) cause any adverse human health effects, including in the brain.
