| Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure ICNIRP (International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) Standing Committee on Epidemiology: Anders Ahlbom,1,2 Adele Green,3 Leeka Kheifets,4 David Savitz,5 and Anthony Swerdlow6 1Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Stockholm Center for Public Health, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Epidemiology and Public Health Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia; 4Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA; 5Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; 6Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom Abstract
We have undertaken a comprehensive review of epidemiologic studies about the effects of radiofrequency fields (RFs) on human health in order to summarize the current state of knowledge, explain the methodologic issues that are involved, and aid in the planning of future studies. There have been a large number of occupational studies over several decades, particularly on cancer, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcome, and cataract, in relation to RF exposure. More recently, there have been studies of residential exposure, mainly from radio and television transmitters, and especially focusing on leukemia. There have also been studies of mobile telephone users, particularly on brain tumors and less often on other cancers and on symptoms. Results of these studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between RF exposure and any adverse health effect. On the other hand, the studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association. A key concern across all studies is the quality of assessment of RF exposure. Despite the ubiquity of new technologies using RFs, little is known about population exposure from RF sources and even less about the relative importance of different sources. Other cautions are that mobile phone studies to date have been able to address only relatively short lag periods, that almost no data are available on the consequences of childhood exposure, and that published data largely concentrate on a small number of outcomes, especially brain tumor and leukemia. Key words: electromagnetic fields, EMF, epidemiology, health effects, radiofrequency, RF. Environ Health Perspect 112:1741-1754 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7306 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 23 September 2004]
Address correspondence to A. Ahlbom, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Telephone: 46-8-5248-74-70. Fax: 4-8-31-39-61. E-mail: anders.ahlbom@imm.ki.se We thank R. Neale for help with an initial draft, M. Feychting for comments, and M. Bittar for secretarial assistance. We also thank P. Vecchia for invaluable advice and P. Buffler for participation in planning of the work. This work was supported by the ICNIRP. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 1 June 2004 ; accepted 23 September 2004.
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