EMF exposure and non-specific physical symptoms

Abstract

OPS 26: Radiation, EMF, cancer and mortality, Room 114, Floor 1, August 26, 2019, 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM Background/Aim: Some people attribute non-specific physical symptoms (NSPS) such as headache and fatigue to exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). Most studies into exposure-response associations in electrosensitivity were short-term laboratory studies, only suitable to detect symptoms elicited by acute exposure. We will present the results from two studies with an ambulatory design using body worn exposimeters and electronic diaries that aimed to analyse exposure-response relationships in self-declared electrosensitive persons both at a group and individual level. Methods: In study 1, seven participants registered NSPS and perceived RF-EMF exposure in an electronic diary daily at three set times for a period of three weeks. During the same period personal exposure was monitored using exposimeters. A second study including 57 participants used a similar design but the study period was five days and diaries were completed at quasi-random times with 2-3 hour intervals. Associations between EMF exposure and NSPS were analysed using ARIMA and (linear) mixed models. Results: In study 1, we found statistically significant associations between perceived and actual exposure to WiFi and base stations for mobile telecommunications and NSPS scores in four participants. In two persons a higher EMF exposure was statistically significantly associated with higher symptom scores, and in two other persons it was associated with lower scores. Strengths of the associations were in the order of a 0.4 to 0.9 increase or decrease in symptom scores (on a five-point scale) for an increase of 2 standard deviations in EMF exposure. In study 2, at group level, there was no statistically significant association between EMF exposure and NSPS. Analyses at an individual level are ongoing and will be presented at the conference. Conclusions: RF-EMF exposure was associated either positively or negatively with NSPS in some but not all of the selected self-declared electrohypersensitive persons.