Over the past two decades, the average exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) exposure has increased exponentially due to the proliferation of wireless technologies.  This has caused concern among those who understand the potential for harm.  It has also led to controversy, created primarily by those who stand to profit from these technologies.

Research on the health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) continues to suggest the need for a precautionary approach to the use of wireless technologies.  The following summary highlights items that may be of interest to CHE Partners.

• Several international studies on the health risks of cell phones and other wireless technologies were published in December and January but only one study received widespread media coverage in the U.S. - the one showing no relationship between cell phone use and brain tumors (Schuz et al¹).  However, the five-country study that did show increased risk of gliomas (a type of brain tumor) after 10 years or more of cell phone use² was reported only by the Orlando Sun-Sentinel.  CHE Partner Louis Slesin reports on these and other developments in Microwave News.
  
  
• Scientists in Switzerland and the UK reported in Environmental Health Perspectives (Huss et al) that the source of research funding for cell phone studies may affect study results.  The researchers analyzed 57 studies and found that those funded exclusively by industry were least likely to report statistically significant results.  More than two-thirds of the studies showed biologic effects associated with use of cellular phones and other wireless technologies.³
  
  
• Can EMF exposure during development leave an imprint later in life?  Researcher Carl Blackman posed this question in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine⁴ last year.  In the wake of CHE’s January Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility, this review of the science published since the late 1980s seems highly relevant.
  
  
• Swedish researcher Orjan Hallberg reported a sudden trend change in major health indicators among residents of sparsely populated areas where average output from cell phone handsets is expected to be higher.  Writing in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, Hallberg reported that since 1997 general illness rates and mortality from Alzheimer’s disease have increased significantly and recovery from illness, surgery, and work-related accidents has lengthened.  In other words, over the past 20 years, the countryside, formerly the healthiest place to live, has become the most unhealthy.  The author suggests that “the two factors having the strongest correlation with decreased health quality were the estimated average power output from mobile phones (positive correlation) and the reported coverage from the global system for mobile communication base stations (negative correlation) in each county.⁵
  
  
• Cindy Sage, co-coordinator of CHE's Working Group on Electromagnetic Fields, CHE Partners Michael Kundi and Magda Havas, and other scientists submitted critical commentary on a report by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR): “Possible effects of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF), Radio Frequency Fields (RF) and Microwave Radiation on human health.”  Download the letters (PDF 1, 2, 3)
  
  
• Public health advisories in Germany, Sweden, and Belgium urge a precautionary approach to the deployment and expansion of wireless technologies (cellular phones and antennas, and broadcast transmitters).  These countries advise consumers to keep their radiation exposure as low as possible through the use of hands-free sets, and phones with a low SAR (specific absorption rate). See Microwave News for more information.
  
  
• Closer to home, senior public health scientists urged precaution to reduce the risk of childhood leukemia associated with electric power lines.  At a hearing convened by the Connecticut Siting Council, Drs. David Carpenter, Raymond Neutra, and Daniel Wartenberg testified in support of prudent avoidance, as advocated by the Connecticut Department of Public Health.  The two utilities involved proposed an exposure limit of 100 milligauss, despite the numerous epidemiological studies that implicate low frequency EMF exposure (2–5 mG) to increased incidence of childhood leukemia. Microwave News includes the scientists’ testimony as well as quotations from Michael Repacholi, former head of the World Health Organization’s EMF project, who is now working on behalf of the two utilities involved.
  
  
• The Canadian Cancer Society also urges prudent avoidance with regard to powerlines, recommending that people limit their exposure to EMF, including limiting the amount of time children spend playing directly underneath power lines, updating household wiring, and sitting at arm’s length from computers. See: http://www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3172_372086__langId-en,00.html.
  
  
• Land Salzburg, the Public Health Department of Salzburg has published the Building Biology Indoor Environmental Checklist (July 2005).⁶  This checklist contains information to help consumers identify sources of EMF from appliances, home wiring and lighting, wireless devices like cell and cordless phones.  Solutions and options are given which reduce or eliminate EMF exposures. Download the PDF.