The radiation literature survey provides updates on published literature related to radiation (both ionising and non-ionising) and health.

Published literature includes articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, scientific-body reports, conference proceedings, etc.

The updates on new radiation literature that are of high quality and of public interest will be published as they arise. For each update, a short summary and a link to the abstract or to the full document (if freely available) are provided. The update may also include a commentary from ARPANSA and links to external websites for further information. The links may be considered useful at the time of preparation of the update however ARPANSA has no control over the content or currency of information on external links. Please see the ARPANSA website disclaimer.

Explanations of the more common terms used in the updates are found in the glossary.

The radiation literature that is listed in the updates is found by searching various databases and is not exhaustive.

Find out more about how you can search for scientific literature.

The intention of the radiation literature survey is to provide an update on new literature related to radiation and health that may be of interest to the general public. ARPANSA does not take responsibility for any of the content in the scientific literature and is not able to provide copies of the papers that are listed.


Are you looking for earlier editions of the Radiation literature survey?

Visit the National Library of Australia Australian Government Web Archive to access archived information no longer available on our website.

Investigation of effects of short-term exposure to 50 HZ magnetic field on central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems in rats

Authored By:

Elmas O et al
Summary:

This animal study investigated whether short-term exposure to ELF MF affects the nervous system. Rats were exposed to ELF-MF at 50 Hz, at a level of 0.3 millitesla (mT) (one and a half times the public exposure limit of international guidelines). The study did not find any significant changes in the physiological parameters of the nervous systems that were monitored.

 

Published In:

Bioelectromagnetics 2015: in press

Occupational exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and electrical shocks and acute myeloid leukaemia in four Nordic countries

Authored By:

Talibov M et al
Summary:

This is a nested case-control study where the association between occupational exposure to ELF-MF and electrical shocks and leukaemia was investigated. From a cohort of 14.9 million adults, a total of 5,409 acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cases were matched with 27,045 controls. The exposure to ELF-MF and risk of electrical shocks were assessed using job-exposure matrices. The authors concluded that there is no association between occupational exposure to neither ELF-MF nor electrical shocks and AML.

Published In:

Cancer Causes Control 2015: in press

Occupational exposures and risk of dementia-related mortality in the prospective Netherlands Cohort Study

Authored By:

Koeman T et al
Summary:

Thiscase-cohort study looked into the association between dementia and occupational exposures to solvents, pesticides, metals, ELF-MF, and many other risk factors. The cohort consisted of 120,852 subjects, aged between 55 and 69 years, living in the Netherlands. After a follow-up period of 17.3 years, 682 male and 870 female cases were available. The authors found positive association between a type of dementia and occupational exposures to three risk factors combined - metals, chlorinated solvents and ELF-MF - which seemed driven by metals (HR = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.98 - 1.86).

Published In:

Am J Ind Med 2015; 58 (6): 625 - 635

Prospective Study of Pregnancy Outcomes After Parental Cell Phone Exposure: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study

Authored By:

Baste et al
Summary:

This is a cohort study that looked into the possibility of any association between pregnancy outcomes and parental RF EMFexposure to mobile phones. The cohort included more than 100,000 pregnancies from all over Norway, recruited during 1999-2009. Two sets of questionnaires mainly asking about mobile phone use were handed out to the expectant mothers during gestational week 15 and 30. Expectant fathers were also given a questionnaire during gestational week 15. The responses were then assessed against the pregnancy outcomes identified from the birth registry. The authors found no association between parental mobile phone exposure and any of the studied pregnancy outcomes.

Published In:

Epidemiology 2015: in press
Commentary by ARPANSA:

According to a report by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) in 2015, the investigations on RF EMR exposure from mobile phones and reproductive outcomes have not been informative. This is mainly due to methodological limitations including confounding i.e. uncontrolled lifestyle factors. The committee concluded that it is not possible to weigh the evidence due to a lack of informative studies. It is important to note that the study by Baste et al which is a large prospective cohort study, did not find an association.

Tumor promotion by exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields below exposure limits for humans

Authored By:

Lerchl A et al
Summary:

This animal study investigated whether exposure to radiofrequency (RF) EMF causes promotion of tumours. Pregnant mice were treated with a carcinogen and exposed to RF-EMF at four exposure conditions: sham, at specific absorption rate (SAR) of 0.04, 0.4 and 2 Watts per kilogram (W/kg) (ranging from 2-100% of the public exposure limits in the Australian Standard for RF exposure). The study found tumour-promoting effects at exposure levels below the limits although no clear dose-response effect was observed. The authors concluded that further studies are warranted to investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Published In:

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2015; 459(4):585-90

Do signals of a hand-held TETRA transmitter affect cognitive performance, well-being, mood or somatic complaints in healthy young men? Results of a randomized double-blind cross-over provocation study

Authored By:

Sauter C, Eggert T, Dorn H, Schmid G, Bolz T, Marasanov A, Hansen ML, Peter A, Danker-Hopfe H
Summary:

This human provocation study investigated whether the radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) cause any adverse health effects. A total of 30 participants were randomly exposed to a TETRA-like signal of 385 megahertz (MHz) at three different exposure conditions - Sham, at a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of 1.5 Watts per kilogram (W/kg), and at SAR of 6 W/kg, for 2.5 hours each. The study found that the TETRA's short-term EMF exposure did not negatively impact the cognitive function, mood and well-being of the human participants.

Published In:

Environ Res 2015; 140: 85 - 94
Commentary by ARPANSA:

The EMF exposure from a TETRA handset can be higher than that of mobile phones, depending on the output power of the transmitter, the distance between the handset and the head and the time period of the device operating (duty cycle). A study by Gabriel et al (2000) that estimated the SAR produced in a phantom head due to TETRA using modelling found that the SAR at some parts of the head could exceed the basic restrictions for public exposure for some exposure situations. For example, with TETRA Class 3 radio (transmitter-s peak output power of 3 W) when transmitting at maximum power (cited by a report by Health Protection Agency in 2012 on Health Effects from RF EMF).

In this study by Sauter et al, there was one exposure condition where participants were exposed to TETRA signal as high as a SAR of 6 W/kg, which is three times the basic restriction for public exposure. The study did not find any significant difference in the cognitive performance, mood, and subjective complaints of the participants when exposed in three situations - sham, 75% of public exposure limit or three times the public exposure limit. Moreover the participants and the researchers were both blinded to the exposure which eliminates the nocebo effects.

Previous human studies on TETRA (Riddervold et al, Wallace et al, and Nieto-Hernandez et al) also did not find any significant difference between the exposed and non-exposed group.

Many previous provocation studies have not been able to establish a causal relation between EMF exposure below current exposure limits and adverse health effects. This includes the non-specific symptoms reported by individuals claiming to have electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). See ARPANSA's commentary on January 2010's literature report.

ARPANSA has recently issued a fact sheet about EHS (http://www.arpansa.gov.au/RadiationProtection/Factsheets/is_ehs.cfm)

In vitro effect of cell phone radiation on motility, DNA fragmentation and clusterin gene expression in human sperm

Authored By:

Zalata A, et al
Summary:

This in vitro study investigated whether RF EMF emitted by mobile phones causes adverse health effects in human sperm. Semen samples were either not exposed or exposed to RF EMF from mobile phone for 1 hour, at a SAR of 1.46 W/kg (roughly around 75% of the ARPANSA RF Standard public exposure limit) and then assessed for sperm motility, velocity and some protein activities. The authors concluded that RF EMF exposure from mobile phones has some negative impacts on sperm cells.

Published In:

Int J Fertil Steril 2015; 9 (1): 129 - 136

Increased Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) by Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to High Voltage Power Lines: A Case Control Study in Isfahan, Iran

Authored By:

Tabrizi MM, et al
Summary:

The impact of prenatal and childhood exposure to extremely low frequency EMF from high voltage power lines on the incidence of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) was investigated in this case-control study. The study included 22 cases of newly diagnosed ALL and 100 controls that lived in low socioeconomic environment in Iran. The authors concluded that there is an increased risk of childhood ALL (odds ratio, OR = 3.651, 95% confidence interval, 95% CI, 1.692-7.878) with pre- and postnatal exposure to EMF from high voltage power lines in a population with a low socioeconomic background.

Published In:

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 2015; 16 (6): 2347 - 2350

Increasing rates of brain tumours in the Swedish national inpatient register and the causes of death register

Authored By:

Hardell L, et al
Summary:

This study was trying to examine the reliability of the incidence data from the Swedish Cancer Register. The incidence data from the Swedish National Inpatient Register (IPR) and Causes of Death Register (CDR) were studied and compared to the Cancer Register data for the time period 1998-2013. The authors comment that the Cancer Register may miss a number of cases, due to brain tumours of unknown type are either not reported to the Cancer Register or when reported they could potentially be classified as other brain cancer types, and also due to general decline of autopsies where diagnosis can be made at time of death. The authors concluded that the Swedish Cancer Register is not reliable to be used to dismiss results in epidemiological studies on the use of wireless phones and brain tumour risk.

Published In:

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2015; 12 (4): 3793 - 3813

Circadian gene expression and extremely low-frequency magnetic fields: an in vitro study

Authored By:

Manzella N, et al
Summary:

This in vitro study investigated the effects of ELF-MF exposure on the regulation of clock genes in the cell line. This cell line was exposed to ELF-MF at the frequency of 50 Hz, at a level of 0.1 millitesla (mT) which is at the public exposure guideline in Australia. The authors reported that the ELF-MF exposure caused some effects, mainly altering the expression of the clock genes that may affect the circadian rhythm. This study supported the hypothesis that ELF-MF may be able to affect circadian physiological process..

Published In:

Bioelectromagnetics 2015: in press

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