At the end of September, I attended the annual BioEM2021 conference organized by the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS) and the European BioElectromagnetics Association (EBEA). This year’s hybrid event was held in Ghent, Belgium. In addition to the scientific program, the conference addressed the merging of EBEA and BEMS into one society. Information about the preparations for the new society is available on the BEMS and EBEA websites.

The European Commission has requested the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) to produce two scientific opinions on the safety of electromagnetic fields (Opinion I and II). Opinion I: To advise on the need for a (technical) revision of the Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC annexes and of the annexes of Directive 2013/35/EU in view of the latest scientific evidence available, in particular that of the ICNIRP guidelines updated in 2020, with regard to radio frequency 100 kHz to 300 GHz. Opinion II: To update the SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) Opinion of 2015 in the light of the latest scientific evidence with regard to frequencies between 1Hz and 100 kHz.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, quite a few studies related to electric and magnetic fields continued to be published. Once again, I have found some fascinating scientific articles for this new bulletin. The bulletin starts with an article that discusses magnetic fields and childhood leukemia. The bulletin concludes with two articles related to EU Directive 2013/35/EU.

Hope you enjoy reading this summary in English!

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!

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!