Please comment on the possible EMF effects related to prenatal ultrasound, which some studies show affect neuronal development and migration.

Please, consider the following study: Early Hum Dev. 2005 Aug;81(8):689-93. Is an excessive number of prenatal echographies a risk for fetal growth? Bellieni CV, Buonocore G, Bagnoli F, Cordelli DM, Gasparre O, Calonaci F, Filardi G, Merola A, Petraglia F. Source Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine, University of Siena, Italy. bellieni@iol.it Abstract AIM: To assess whether a very high number of prenatal ultrasonographies affects birthweight. POPULATION AND METHODS: We studied 1203 consecutive women who delivered in Siena Hospital. Exclusion criteria were the following: twin pregnancy, maternal smoke or alcohol ingestion in pregnancy, gestational diabetes, placenta or umbilical cord defects, gestational age at birth <37 weeks, and major malformations. We analysed birthweights in relation to the number of ultrasound examinations. 120 women had undergone a minimum number (three or less-base group) and 167 a maximum number (nine or more-intensive group) of fetal US scans. We compared the birthweight of the children born in these two groups and the correlation between number of US scans and birthweight in the whole population. RESULTS: Mean birthweights of the base and the intensive groups were 3389.5+/-434 g and 3268+/-438 g, respectively (p=0.0206). Nevertheless, the regression study did not show a significant correlation between birthweight and number of US scans. The mean age of the base group was 30.1+/-5.3 years and that of the intensive group was 32.09+/-4.99 years (p=0.0018). Eighteen women of base group underwent amniocenteses vs. 71 in the intensive group (p<0.001). In the base group 57.5% of the mothers had low school level vs. 24.4% in the intensive group (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: More studies are needed to confirm or exclude any relationship between an intensive use of prenatal ultrasounds and birthweight, and to exclude other effects of ultrasounds on children's health. Moreover, our study shows an excess of prenatal diagnostic procedures, the causes of which should be investigated.

Dr. Agarwal, Comment: Cellphone are ALWAYS radiating because every 0.9 seconds, they must tell the cell tower, "Here I am." Have you had any repercussions as the result of your studies? Lloyd Morgan

Dr. Li, "Dirty electricity" is high frequency voltage transients on electrical wiring resulting from interruption of electrical current flow. What role does dirty electricity have? Is it possible that magnetic fields are a surrogate for dirty electricity?

Dr. Pinto, You results show percentage of induced currents of the ICNIRP limits. Do you believe ICNIRP limits are safe?"

ICNIRP limits protect from the acute effects of exposure to EMF already known. At present time it is not clear if there are health effects under such values and which kind of effects occur. For this reason it is very important that at least ICNIRP limits for population are respected also for fetus for all electrical devices used from general population.

Do Dr. Belleini or Dr. Pinto know of any follow-up studies of premies who were subjected to high EMF(prolonged isolette exposure) with respect to melanoma, or other cancers?

At the present moment, we have no news of a correlation between EMF and melanoma; a possible correlation can be investigated between UV exposure (when produced by the bulbs) during phototherapy for jaundice and melanoma (babies are phototype 0); but no follow up studies exist

Dr. Iole Pinto has asked me to post the following except from the publication Bellieni C., Pinto I. et. al. Fetal exposure to electromagnetic fields from “laptop use” of laptop computers: "A precautionary principle states that prudent action should be taken when ‘‘there is sufficient scientific evidence (but not necessarily absolute proof) that inaction could lead to harm and where action can be justified on reasonable assessment of cost-effectiveness ratio’’, and that the number of possibly affected persons as well as the benefits of EMF usage should be taken into consideration [51]. Taking into account such principle, several recommendations on further limitation of exposure to electromagnetic fields - well below the ICNIRP guidelines limits - have been produced by several national boards and institutions [52,53]. In particular the following recommendations are given by WHO [6]: “Changes to engineering practice to reduce ELF exposure from equipment or devices should be considered (…). Local authorities should enforce wiring regulations to reduce unintentional ground currents when building new or rewiring existing facilities, while maintaining safety. (…) National authorities should implement an effective and open communication strategy to enable informed decision-making by all stakeholders; this should include information on how individuals can reduce their own exposure”. In this light, our results are a strong claim for further caution and guarantees in the use of portable computers."