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INT J OCCUP ENVIRON HEALTH 2010;16:263-267

Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. Artículo original completo

23·07·2010 - Visitas: 1666

Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. VINI G. KHURANA, LENNART HARDELL, JORIS EVERAERT, ALICJA BORTKIEWICZ, MICHAEL CARLBERG, MIKKO AHONEN

ABSTRACT: Human populations are increasingly exposed to microwave/radiofrequency (RF) emissions from wireless communication technology, including mobile phones and their base stations. By searching PubMed, we identified a total of 10 epidemiological studies that assessed for putative health effects of mobile phone base stations. Seven of these studies explored the association between base station proximity and neurobehavioral effects and three investigated cancer. We found that eight of the 10 studies reported increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations. None of the studies reported exposure above accepted international guidelines, suggesting that current guidelines may be inadequate in protecting the health of human populations. We believe that comprehensive epidemiological studies of longterm mobile phone base station exposure are urgently required to more definitively understand its health impact. Key words: base stations; electromagnetic field (EMF); epidemiology; health effects; mobile phone; radiofrequency (RF); electromagnetic radiation. INT J OCCUP ENVIRON HEALTH 2010;16:263-267

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CONCLUSIONS Despite variations in the design, size and quality of these studies as summarized in Table 1, it is the consistency of the base-station epidemiological literature from several countries that we find striking. In particular, the increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations found in 80% of the available studies. It should be pointed out that the overall findings of health problems associated with base stations might be based on methodological weaknesses, especially since exposure to RF electromagnetic radiation was not always measured. There are some proposed mechanisms via which low-intensity EMF might affect animal and human health,16,17 but full comprehensive mechanisms still remain to be determined.18,19 Despite this, the accumulating epidemiological literature pertaining to the health effects of mobile phones13,20 and their base stations (Table 1) suggests that previous exposure standards based on the thermal effects of EMF should no longer be regarded as tenable. In August 2007, an international working group of scientists, researchers, and public health policy professionals (the BioInitiative Working Group) released its report on EMF and health.21 It raised evidence-based concerns about the safety of existing public limits that regulate how much EMF is allowable from power lines, cellular phones, base stations, and many other sources of EMF exposure in daily life. The BioInitiative Report21 provided detailed scientific information on health impacts when people were exposed to electromagnetic radiation hundreds or even thousands of times below limits currently established by the FCC and International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection in Europe (ICNIRP). The authors reviewed more than 2000 scientific studies and reviews, and have concluded that: (1) the existing public safety limits are inadequate to protect public health; and (2) from a public health policy standpoint, new public safety limits and limits on further deployment of risky technologies are warranted based on the total weight of evidence.21 A precautionary limit of 1 mW/m2 (0.1 microW/cm2 or 0.614 V/m) was suggested in Section 17 of the BioInitiative Report to be adopted for outdoor, cumulative RF exposure.21 This limit is a cautious approximation based on the results of several human RF-EMF studies in which no substantial adverse effects on well being were found at low exposures akin to power densities of less than 0.5 - 1 mW/m2.2,5,22-26 RF-EMF exposure at distances > 500 m from the types of mobile phone base stations reviewed herein should fall below the precautionary limit of 0.614 V/m.

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