ARPANSA - Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

By: The Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR)
Published in: Health Phys. 2009 Oct;97(4):348-56

This statement by the Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR) on the potential health effects of radiofrequency (RF) radiation summarises the conclusions from several major reviews and comments on the very different conclusions in the BioInitiative Report. COMAR concludes that the weight of scientific evidence does not support the safety limits recommended by the BioInitiative group. COMAR recommends that public health authorities continue to base their policies on RF safety limits recommended by established international organisations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

PUBMED LINK

Over the last decade there have been several reviews by government agencies and expert panels concerning health effects of RF radiation exposure. These include:

• The Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones
  http://www.iegmp.org.uk/
• Royal Society of Canada
  http://www.rsc.ca/
• Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks
  http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/docs/scenihr_o_022.pdf

There have also been several RF safety guidelines and standards which have included a review of the scientific evidence. These include:

• ICNIRP: http://www.icnirp.de/documents/emfgdl.pdf
• IEEE: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1378612

A review of the scientific evidence is also included in the rationale of the Australian radiofrequency standard. The Australian standard and supporting documentation is available at http://www.arpansa.gov.au/Publications/codes/rps3.cfm

The BioInitiative report: “A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)” was issued in 2007 by an independent group of scientists . The report offers conclusions and recommendations that are very different from those of IEEE/ICES, ICNIRP, and health agencies (e.g. World Health Organization) around the world, both in its assessment of the scientific evidence and in its policy recommendations. The BioInitiative report has been criticised for being selective, rather than a comprehensive, review of the RF bioeffects literature. Apart from COMAR other organisations that have issued position statements on the BioInitiative report include:

• The Health Council of the Netherlands
  http://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/200817E_0.pdf
• The Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research
  http://www.acrbr.org.au/FAQ/ACRBR%20Bioinitiative%20Report%2018%20Dec%202008.pdf

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By: zur Nieden A et al
Published in: Int J Hyg Environ Health 2009 Sep 5. [Epub ahead of print]

In this study the authors evaluate the scientific literature and research databases on mobile communications and health in order to check the incidence and prevalence of symptoms and diseases in adults since 1993. The following health conditions were considered: Alzheimer's disease, dementia, sleep disturbances, tinnitus, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart-diseases, headache, migraine. The authors conclude that with the available data there are no time related increases in incidence or prevalence for the investigated diseases.

PUBMED LINK

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By: European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST)
Published in: COST website

The Meeting of Working Group 3 of COST BM0704 (Emerging EMF-Technologies and Health Risk Management) on EMF Epidemiological and Human Studies took place on 27 August 2009, in Dublin, Ireland. The following topics were presented:

• Poulsen and Schüz: Ongoing Mobile Phone Research Studies and Latest Findings Where Available
• Feychting: Mobile phone use and brain tumors - a review of the epidemiological evidence
• Weinmann, Thomas, Radon: Ongoing RF research studies and latest findings where available: Children and adolescents
• Röösli, Frei, Mohler: A critical evaluation of exposure surrogates in RF-EMF research:recommendations for improving exposure assessment

The presentations are available at http://www.cost-bm0704.org

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By: Goldwein O and Aframian DJ
Published in: Oral Dis 2009 Sep 8. [Epub ahead of print]

Study investigating whether handheld mobile phones induce physiological changes in the adjacent parotid gland, located on the dominant side, in terms of secretion rates and protein levels in the secreted saliva of 50 healthy volunteers. The authors report that parotid glands adjacent to handheld mobile phones (in use) respond by elevated salivary rates and decreased protein secretion reflecting the continuous insult to the glands.

PUBMED LINK

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By: Kwon MS et al
Published in: Bioelectromagnetics 2009 Sep 21. [Epub ahead of print]

Study investigating the effect of mobile phone use on the auditory sensory memory in 17 children aged 11-12 years. It was found that a short exposure (two 6 min blocks for each side) to mobile phone radiofrequency radiation had no statistically significant effects on the auditory sensory memory of children. However, the authors note that the present study only had sufficient statistical power to detect a large effect size.

PUBMED LINK

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By: Foster K
Published in: Health Physics Society fact sheet

This fact sheet summarises the issue of mobile telephony and health. The fact sheet concludes that current available evidence does not show that mobile phone use or exposure to base-station emissions causes brain tumours or any other health effect.

The fact sheet is available at http://hps.org/documents/mobiletelephonefactsheet.pdf

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