Abstract
Personal exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF MF) in children is a very timely topic. We applied cluster analysis to 24 h indoor personal exposures of 884 children in France to identify possible common patterns of exposures. We investigated how electric networks near child home and other variables potentially affecting residential exposure, such as indoor sources of ELF MF, the age and type of the residence and family size, characterized the magnetic field exposure patterns. We identified three indoor personal exposure patterns: children living near overhead lines of high (63–150 kV), extra-high (225 kV) and ultra-high voltage (400 kV) were characterized by the highest exposures; children living near underground networks of low (400 V) and mid voltage (20 kV) and substations (20 kV/400 V) were characterized by mid exposures; children living far from electric networks had the lowest level of exposure. The harmonic component was not relevant in discriminating the exposure patterns, unlike the 50 Hz or broadband (40–800 Hz) component. Children using electric heating appliances, or living in big buildings or in larger families had generally a higher level of personal indoor exposure. Instead, the age of the residence was not relevant in differentiating the exposure patterns.
Highlights
Personal exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF MF, 50/60 Hz) in children has raised particular interest since the late 80s [1] when ELF MF exposure was found to be a potential risk factor for childhood leukemia
Namely: (i) we aimed to understanding how the patterns of indoor personal exposure found by cluster analysis were affected by the presence of indoor sources of ELF MF such as electric heating and by variables that might indirectly contribute to indoor exposure such as the physical parameters of the residences (the age and type of residence) and the family size; and (ii) we analyzed the 50 Hz MF and the broadband (40–800 Hz) and harmonic (100–800 Hz) components to assess their potential contribution in differentiating the patterns of indoor personal exposure
Environmental variables and broadband and harmonic components of the MF in differentiating the patterns of indoor exposure identified through cluster analysis
Summary
Personal exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields (ELF MF, 50/60 Hz) in children has raised particular interest since the late 80s [1] when ELF MF exposure was found to be a potential risk factor for childhood leukemia. In the first decade of the 2000s, some studies [2,3,4] showed that the risk of childhood leukemia increased for daily average MF exposures >0.4 μT, without evidencing a causal relationship. An ever increasing number of studies and campaigns were implemented throughout the world to measure ELF MF in children and provide realistic data about the level of personal exposures in everyday settings [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Public Health 2019, 16, 4363; doi:10.3390/ijerph16224363 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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