Gegevens

Geschreven: maandag 03 januari 2011 21:40

Uit de CHE EMF nieuwsbrief:

In 2009 the EU established a "European Health Risk Assessment Network on Electromagnetic Fields Exposure." Here is the report on what Europeans are exposed to: http://efhran.polimi.it/dissemination.html

Excerpts from the conclusions:
"The general RF exposure level of the population from the fixed RF sources including LF/MF broadcast, VHF broadcast, UHF TV and telecommunications is very low. The range is between 0,01-1 V/m in Europe that is many times below the exposure limits of EU recommendations. The results of exposure measurements show that more than 60% of recorded total EMF exposures were below 1 V/m, less than 1% above 6 V/m and only less than 0.1% were above 20 V/m field strength. The relevant European recommended exposure limit for the public is in the range of 28 V/m to 87 V/m. Otherwise the contribution of the RF exposure from wireless telecommunication technology is continuously increasing and now is above 60 % of the total exposure."

"The major part the RF public exposure comes from mobile and wireless portable devices, not from the fixed transmitters. The cumulative dose may also be affected by the radiation effectiveness of the phone, network coverage, environmental and user factors.
The indoor RF exposure seems to be increasing faster than outdoor exposure due to the widespreading of home wireless devices. This will considerably increase the complexity of epidemiological studies. The dominant source with respect to local and cumulative exposure will, however, be the cellular and portable phone."

Source

In the opinion of the authors of the EFHRAN report, the risk analysis of the most recent publications has "not necessitated any revisions to the existing consensus."

And this is what they had to say about the Interphone study and the need for further research:
"Results of the international analyses of glioma and meningioma risk in the Interphone study
have been published. While an association between mobile phone use and risk of these
diseases has not been demonstrated, the study does not either demonstrate an absence of
risk. There is at this time inadequate evidence for all endpoints considered. Given that the
majority of subjects in Interphone were light users compared to users today, particularly
young people, and as the study did not include subjects who used phones for more than 12
years, further research is needed to evaluate the possible association between RF exposure
and risk of tumours.

While increased responsiveness to RF fields has not been demonstrated in provocation
studies, even in subjects that self-report hypersensitivity, the possibility remains that longterm
mobile phone use may induce symptoms, such as migraine and vertigo, and further
work is required to clarify this issue."

http://efhran.polimi.it/docs/EFHRAN_D2_final.pdf

The above numbers may sound reassuring to government and industry. I am disturbed, however, that over 40% of the EMF measurements were above 1 V/m (ca. 3000 µW/m2) when most precautionary guidelines call for threshold levels below 0.6 or even 0.2 V/m. And it looks like we just got started on wireless so the exposure levels will continue to increase...