Summary of the situation report bulletin (2/2020) published online

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In the previous bulletin, I mentioned that the BioEM2021 conference would be held in June 2021 in Hawaii. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation has changed. According to the organizers (the European BioElectromagnetics Association and Bioelectromagnetics Society), the BioEM2021 conference will be held online, and possibly also in a new location in Europe, June 13–18, 2021.

The ICNIRP website advises that they have canceled the 9th International NIR Workshop in South Korea that was scheduled for January 2021. According to the website announcement, their aim is to continue meetings as a scientific community in the future, either on virtual platforms or on-site as well, in the long run. They advise you to stay tuned for any updates by subscribing to the ICNIRP newsletter.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, quite a few studies related to electric and magnetic fields have still been published. The first article in this bulletin is a publication that explores the risk of childhood leukemia and socioeconomic factors in Denmark. The article doesn’t deal with electric and magnetic fields directly, but I think it provides useful background information on the theme.

These bulletins have traditionally focused more on public exposure rather than occupational exposure. This time, however, I found a number of interesting articles on occupational exposure, so I included more of them than usual. These articles discuss motor neuron diseases, among other things.

Hope you enjoy reading this summary in English!

Two new articles and two technical brochures published

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The first article, Low Frequency Magnetic Fields Inside Cars by Rauno Pääkkönen and Leena Korpinen is published in Radiation Protection Dosimetry, Volume 187, Issue 2, December 2019, Pages 268–271.

The second article, Effect of Electric and Magnetic Fields on Operation of Insulin Pumps under 400 kV Power Lines by Leena Korpinen, Rauno Pääkkönen and Mika Penttilä is published in Radioprotection, volume 55, Number 1, Mars 2020, Page(s) 51 – 54.

New Technical Brochures:

McVey Mark et al. 2020: Guidelines for safe work methods in substations. Working group B3.46, Technical Brochures 805, Cigre, June 2020.

Hart James et al. 2020: Responsible management of electric and magnetic fields (EMF). Working group C3.19, Technical Brochures 806. Cigre, June 2020.

Summary of the situation report bulletin (1/2020) published online

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In the previous bulletin, I mentioned that this year would see a number of interesting events. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, these events have been either postponed or canceled. The ICNIRP website has advised that they have rescheduled the 9th International NIR Workshop in South Korea to January 14–15, 2021. The BioEM2020 conference was canceled, so the next conference will be BioEM2021, to be held June 13–18, 2021, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, quite a few studies related to electric and magnetic fields have been published. The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has published an article on the gaps in knowledge relevant to the guidelines for limiting exposure to electric and magnetic fields (1 Hz–100 kHz).

Once again, I have found new scientific articles of interest for this bulletin. The first of them is a paper on childhood leukemia. The article discusses the relation between maternal cumulative exposure to electromagnetic fields and the baby being premature or small for gestational age (SGA). The last article of this bulletin deals with occupational exposure, this time focusing on live-line work and the magnetic field exposure related to that.

Hope you enjoy reading this summary in English!

Summary of the situation report bulletin (2/2019) published online

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In November 2019, two interesting seminars were held in Germany: first, November 5–7, the International Workshop: Environmental effects of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields: Flora and Fauna, and later, November 20–22, the 6th International Workshop on the Causes of Childhood Leukemia.

I took part in the first-mentioned seminar. The International Workshop: Environmental effects of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields: Flora and fauna discussed topics such as how birds use the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation as well as research on bats, dogs and honeybees, among others. The Earth’s magnetic field is, obviously, different than fields from electrical systems, but it was, nevertheless, interesting to find out about the wide range of research carried out on magnetoreception.

I have found some interesting scientific publications for this new situation report bulletin, which starts with a paper on the possible association between power lines and childhood leukemia. Occupational exposure is discussed in a paper that explores cancer incidence in UK electricity supply industry workers. Covering quite a vast amount of data from the years 1973–2015, this study reaches far beyond the scope of electric and magnetic fields.

This time, inspired by the seminar I attended in Germany, I chose to conclude the bulletin with a paper on dogs. It was news to me that dogs can be trained to identify the magnetic field of a bar magnet. While there are other dog-related studies available, this struck me as the most interesting. I would also like to remind you that, instead of fields from power lines, this paper is about bar magnets.

Hope you enjoy reading this summary in English!

Four new articles published

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The first article, Operating Model of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients in North Karelia Central Hospital by Leena Korpinen, Tuomo Kava and Ilkka Salmi, is published in International Journal of Medical and Health Sciences Vol:13, No:9, 2019 (Certificate of Best Paper Award)

The second article, Case Study of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Methods of Treatment for a Professional Driver by Rauno Pääkkönen, Leena Korpinen, Tuomo Kava and Ilkka Salmi, is published in International Journal of Medical and Health Sciences Vol:13, No:10, 2019

The third article, Low Frequency Magnetic Fields Inside Cars by Rauno Pääkkönen and Leena Korpinen is published online: 07 November 2019 in Radiation Protection Dosimetry,

The fourth article, Effect of Electric and Magnetic Fields on Operation of Insulin Pumps under 400 kV Power Lines by Leena Korpinen, Rauno Pääkkönen and Mika Penttilä is published online: 03 January 2020, in Radioprotection.