tailieunhanh - Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure

Before we consider opportunities and solutions, it is worth noting that medicine’s isolation from evolutionary biology is just one example of the fragmentation that iso- lates many disciplines. Some of the isolation results from academic structures that allow hiring and promotion to be controlled by narrow disciplines. Universities talk a lot about promoting interdisciplinary work precisely because their structures so efficiently prevent it. However, disci- plines exist for good reasons. There is too much to know. Trying to synthesize work from diverse areas is frustrat- ing, especially if the goal is general understanding, not some fine point. Also, going beyond your specialty means you will inevitably get some things wrong. It is. | __ÍEnvironmental Medicine I Review Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure ICNIRP International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection Standing Committee on Epidemiology Anders Ahlbom 1 2 Adele Green 3 Leeka Kheifets 4 David Savitz 5 and Anthony Swerdlow6 institute of Environmental Medicine Karolinska Institutet Stockholm Sweden 2Stockholm Center for Public Health Stockholm Sweden 3Epidemiology and Public Health Unit Queensland Institute of Medical Research Brisbane Australia 4Department of Epidemiology School of Public Health University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles California USA 5Department of Epidemiology School of Public Health University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill North Carolina USA 6Section of Epidemiology Institute of Cancer Research Sutton Surrey United Kingdom We have undertaken a comprehensive review of epidemiologic studies about the effects of radiofrequency fields RFs on human health in order to summarize the current state of knowledge explain the methodologic issues that are involved and aid in the planning of future studies. There have been a large number of occupational studies over several decades particularly on cancer cardiovascular disease adverse reproductive outcome and cataract in relation to RF exposure. More recently there have been studies of residential exposure mainly from radio and television transmitters and especially focusing on leukemia. There have also been studies of mobile telephone users particularly on brain tumors and less often on other cancers and on symptoms. Results of these studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between RF exposure and any adverse health effect. On the other hand the studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association. A key concern across all studies is the quality of assessment of RF exposure. Despite the ubiquity of new technologies using RFs little is known