BioEM 2025

Session

Workshop 1

WS1

23 Jun 2025, 13:30

La Nef (Couvent des Jacobins)

Conveners

Workshop 1: Three Decades of the WHO EMF Project: Unveiling the ELF-EMF and Childhood Leukemia Connection – Past Insights, Present Understanding, and Future Challenges

• Masatura Ikehata

15. Opening

Chiyoji Ohkubo

23/06/2025, 13:30

16. Childhood leukemia and ELF-MF: an epidemiological perspective

Maria Feychting

23/06/2025, 13:35

During more than four decades, there has been a discussion about whether exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) below guideline levels may be associated with an increased risk of childhood leukaemia. Results from epidemiological studies have unusually consistently showed an increased risk. Original data from studies of ELF-MF and childhood leukaemia of sufficient...

17. BfS research projects on childhood leukemia: focus on animal studies

Janine-Alison Schmidt

23/06/2025, 13:52

Leukemia is the most prevalent cancer among children worldwide, with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (pB-ALL) being the most common subtype. pB-ALL is known for its genetic diversity, featuring various subtypes that involve recurrent and sometimes hereditary genetic alterations. A two-step model suggests that while these genetic alterations may occur before birth, additional...

18. CRIEPI Research Approach to Causal Relationship Between ELF-MFs and Childhood Leukemia

Masayuki Takahashi

23/06/2025, 14:09

Epidemiological studies have indicated an association between exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs) and the development of childhood leukemia. However, further research is necessary because the causal relationship remains unclear. The most common type of childhood leukemia is acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia, which results from the dysregulated differentiation of...

19. Authoritative evaluations regarding the relationship between ELF magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia

Joachim Schüz

23/06/2025, 14:26

Extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) have been evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Monograph programme on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards to Humans in June 2001. The IARC Monographs identify environmental factors that are carcinogenic hazards to humans, with classification as Group 1 carcinogens (“carcinogenic to humans”), Group 2A...

20. Three decades of the who EMF project: workshop on unveiling the connection between extremely low frequency -magnetic fields and childhood leukemia

Masateru Ikehata

23/06/2025, 14:43

This year marks 30 years since the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the International Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Project. A significant milestone in EMF research was the 2002 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) assessment, which classified extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B) due to their association with...

21. Closing

Chiyoji Ohkubo

23/06/2025, 14:57