In the last six months, a number of international conferences or seminars – more than usual – have discussed the health issues related to extremely low-frequency fields. The European Bioelectromagnetics Association (EBEA)organised its tenth conference in Rome in February. The International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) held its EMF-ELF 2011 conference in Paris in March, and in May it was time for the NIR & Children’s Health conference in Ljubljana, co-organised by the WHO and the ICNIRP.
The issues discussed at the CIGRE conference were also highlighted in Rome and Ljubljana. What was especially interesting for me to hear at the Rome conference was that a research group was planning to investigate the health effects of magnetic fields of more than 1000 microT. In recent years, the effects of clearly smaller magnetic fields have already been studied quite extensively.
In Ljubljana, my interest was piqued by a French study that found out that with children the higher than usual magnetic field exposure (more than 0.4 microT) is mostly caused by clock radios. The researchers had studied the exposure of about 1,000 children. I think their observations are quite significant – it will be interesting to see how this information influences future studies. The proportion of exposure caused by power lines is clearly lower than perhaps previously assumed.
I also found some interesting new scientific articles for this bulletin. They include an analysis on the relationship between magnetic field exposure and childhood leukaemia, and a study on human cognitive performance in a magnetic field. An Italian research group conducted an extensive follow-up study on workers’ exposure at work, at home and outside the home.
Even though this bulletin focuses on extremely low-frequency electric and magnetic fields, I also included one article that deals with intermediate frequencies (300 Hz–100 kHz). The article in question presents a study on plasma balls, which mainly serve as decorative items or touchable toys in which a suitable voltage and ionised gas are used to create bursts of electric discharge. The plasma ball is a good example of facing a high-level exposure without even necessarily realising this is the case. People certainly come up with all sorts of interesting things!
The summary of the first situation report bulletin for the year 2011 (pdf) is published online in English.
Hope you enjoy reading this summary in English!
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