Article publication date
January 2023
Authored by
Pinto et al.
Summary
This systematic review evaluated the evidence on exposures to radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) and increased risk of tumour (malignant and benign) incidence in laboratory animals (rodents). A total of 294 research papers were screened and 46 were included in the systematic review. This included 27 in vivo eligible studies to evaluate cancer incidence, with 23 studies used in the subsequent meta-analysis to assess the possible risk of tumours. The findings of the study demonstrated that there was no statistically significant association between exposure to RF-EMF and the risk of cancer in most of the considered animal tissues or organs; while significant associations were found for tumours in the heart, central nervous system (brain), and intestine. The quality of evidence for the significant associations were either low or very low. The study showed that there is little or inadequate evidence of an association between RF-EMF exposure and incidence of tumours.
Link to
Published in
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Commentary by ARPANSA
The review provides a robust evaluation of whether RF-EMF exposure is related to the incidence of tumours in laboratory animals. The studies suggesting significant associations for the heart, intestine and brain tumours (e.g., The NTP study and Falcioni et al., 2018) have a number of limitations. For example, these studies were prone to multiple testing and the reported significant associations could have occurred due to chance. An evaluation of these studies has also been published by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation (ICNIRP) and has been commented by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).
The overall findings of this review study are consistent with a recent review conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration on RF-EMF and Cancer. The World Health Organization is also currently conducting a systematic review on the same topic to understand whether exposure to RF-EMF is related to cancer in laboratory animals. Based on the current scientific evidence, and consistent with the findings of this review, it is the assessment of ARPANSA that there is no substantiated evidence that RF-EMF exposures at levels below the limits set in the ARPANSA Safety Standard cause any adverse health effects, including cancers in human populations.
