Health risks of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, and the World Health Organization's programme

Radiofrequencies (electromagnetic fields from 100kHz to 300GHz) are used for communications, such as mobile phones, radio and television broadcasting, and some other applications such as diathermy. Possible health effects have been studied extensively, especially whether the use of mobile phones increases the risk of brain cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sponsored 13 extensive reviews of the scientific studies on health effects. For human epidemiological and some experimental studies on volunteers, the studies found no increased risk for most effects, with up to moderate confidence (the highest category for observational studies). Some results showed effects on cognitive performance and reduced sperm vitality, but with very low confidence. For animal studies, increases in glioma and heart schwannoma in male rats were reported with high confidence. Increases in some other cancers, and reductions in foetal weight, pregnancy rate and sperm count, were found with moderate or low confidence. The relevance of the animal studies to humans is a key issue. These reviews will be used by the WHO in risk assessment and setting guidelines for exposure and good practice.