Speaker
Description
Radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) are mainly used for telecommunications purposes such as radio and television broadcasting, mobile telephony, and other wireless communications. Concern has been raised regarding possible adverse effects to human health, such as cancer, from RF-EMF exposure, recently from emerging technologies like the 5G mobile network. It is therefore crucial to perform a health risk assessment to support decision-makers and the general public.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has an ongoing project to assess potential health effects of exposure to RF-EMF in the general and working population. The WHO is currently developing a monograph as part of its Environmental Health Criteria (EHC) series which will assess the available evidence on RF EMF and health. The monograph will be informed, among other things, by a set of commissioned systematic reviews related to several priority health outcomes, including cancer investigated in human observational studies.
The current systematic review included 86 cohort and case-control studies investigating RF EMF exposure and various cancers. The meta-analysis yielded no associations between RF EMF exposure from mobile phones, telecommunications antennas or occupational exposure and the various cancers investigated. The certainty in the evidence was variable across the specific RF EMF exposure sources and various cancers investigated.
While narrative reviews can be valuable for providing expert opinions and discussing complex topics, systematic reviews offer a more rigorous, transparent, and comprehensive synthesis of existing evidence, making them preferable for formulating evidence-based decisions in research, and policy-making for topics like the health risk assessment of RF EMF.
