Friday, July 9, 2010

Khurana et al. (2010) Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. A new journal paper.

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."

From page 266:

"The BioInitiative Report 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. 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. 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."

Khurana, V. G., Hardell, L., Everaert, J., Bortkiewicz, A., Carlberg, M. & Ahonen, M. (2010).Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol. 16, No. 3, 263-267.

http://www.ijoeh.com/index.php/ijoeh/article/view/1309

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We have no comments about this paper (M. Ahonen was one of the authors).

Please, take a look at the research overview of Chronic Exposure:

http://www.chronicexposure.org

European Parliament: No Base Stations Close To Schools + BRAG Antenna Ranking in USA



Antennas, mobile phone masts and other electromagnetic emitting devices should be set within a specific distance from schools and health institutions, according to a report adopted by the European Parliament. The Commission should make more reliable information available about the effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields to citizens who feel that they are not well informed. The report was adopted with 559 votes in favour, 22 against and 8 abstentions."


See also the previous report of EU (items 21-3).



In USA and Canada there is also healthy discussion about schools:





BRAG Antenna Ranking - The full report.