Table Of ContentPersonal exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic
fields and implications for health
Inauguraldissertation
zur
Erlangung der Würde einer Doktorin der Philosophie
vorgelegt der
Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Universität Basel
von
Patrizia Frei
aus Ottenbach, ZH
Basel, 2010
Originaldokument gespeichert auf dem Dokumentenserver der Universität Basel
edoc.unibas.ch
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Genehmigt von der Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
auf Antrag von
Prof. Dr. Martin Röösli, Schweizerisches Tropen- und Public Health-Institut, Universität
Basel (Dissertationsleitung)
Prof. Dr. Peter Achermann, Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Universität Zürich
(Ko-Referent)
Prof. Dr. Marcel Tanner, Schweizerisches Tropen- und Public Health-Institut, Universität
Basel (Fakultätsverantwortlicher)
Basel, den 30. März 2010
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Parlow
Dekan
Table of contents i
Table of contents
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iii
Summary ........................................................................................................................ v
Zusammenfassung ....................................................................................................... ix
List of abbreviations and definitions .......................................................................... xiii
1 Introduction and background ............................................................................... 1
1.1 The electromagnetic spectrum .......................................................................1
1.2 Radio frequency electromagnetic fields: sources and characteristics ........2
1.3 RF-EMFs: reference values .............................................................................3
1.4 Health effects of RF-EMFs: state of research and open issues....................5
2 Framework and objectives of this thesis.............................................................. 9
2.1 The QUALIFEX project ......................................................................................9
2.2 Aims of this thesis......................................................................................... 10
3 Methodological challenges and evaluation of the EME Spy 120...................... 17
Article 1: Statistical analysis of personal radiofrequency electromagnetic
field measurements with nondetects.................................................................. 17
Article 2: Reliable assessment of the measurement accuracy of band-
selective personal exposure meters: an example study .................................... 27
4 RF-EMF exposure distribution in a population sample...................................... 49
Article 3: Temporal and spatial variability of personal exposure to radio
frequency electromagnetic fields ........................................................................ 49
5 Development of an RF-EMF exposure assessment method ............................. 57
Article 4: A model for radiofrequency electromagnetic field predictions at
outdoor and indoor locations in the context of epidemiological research........ 57
Article 5: A prediction model for personal radio frequency electromagnetic
field exposure........................................................................................................ 69
Article 6: Classification of personal exposure to radio frequency
electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) for epidemiological research: evaluation
of different exposure assessment methods ....................................................... 77
i
6 Health effects of RF-EMF exposure ....................................................................85
Article 7: Systematic review on the health effects of radiofrequency
electromagnetic field exposure from mobile phone base stations ...................85
Article 8: Effects of everyday radio frequency electromagnetic field
exposure on sleep quality: a cross-sectional study...........................................111
Article 9: Cohort study on the effects of radio frequency electromagnetic
field exposure in everyday life on non-specific symptoms of ill health and
tinnitus .................................................................................................................123
7 Summary of the main findings..........................................................................147
8 General discussion ............................................................................................153
8.1 Methodological challenges and evaluation of the EME Spy 120 ............153
8.2 RF-EMF exposure distribution in a population sample.............................157
8.3 Development of an RF-EMF exposure assessment method ....................162
8.4 Health effects of RF-EMF exposure............................................................166
8.5 Outlook.........................................................................................................171
References.................................................................................................................175
Curriculum vitae ........................................................................................................193
Acknowledgements i
Acknowledgements
This thesis is part of the QUALIFEX project (health-related quality of life and radio
frequency electromagnetic field exposure: prospective cohort study). The QUALIFEX
project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant 405740–
113595). This thesis was carried out at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medi-
cine in Bern, Switzerland, and at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in
Basel, Switzerland. The University of Basel defrayed the cost of printing this thesis.
I wish to thank the many persons who contributed in different ways to this work.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr.
Martin Röösli. Thank you for accepting me as your PhD student, for all your support
and for being there whenever I needed help. Your expertise in the research field of
electromagnetic fields and epidemiology is outstanding. Thanks for the interesting
discussions and a very fruitful and pleasant collaboration.
I would like to thank the members of our QUALIFEX team, namely Prof. Dr. Charlotte
Braun-Fahrländer, Dr. Georg Neubauer, Dr. Alfred Bürgi, Dr. Jürg Fröhlich, Prof. Dr.
med. Matthias Egger, Dr. Gaston Theis and Niklas Joos, for sharing your expertise
with me, for inspiring ideas and discussions, help with specific investigations and
manuscript preparation and for overall support. Very special thanks go to Evelyn
Mohler. Evelyn, thank you for making my days at work life much nicer, thanks for
giving me advice in work-related and personal questions and for helping me with
the preparation of my thesis
I am grateful to René Denzler from Computer Controls AG for your excellent and
reliable support whenever we encountered problems with our exposimeters. Thanks
to Dr. Frédéric Pythoud from the Federal Office of Metrology METAS for the nice and
prompt calibration service.
Thanks go also to all the study participants of the QUALIFEX project, especially the
participants of the exposimeter study for the effort to carry around an exposimeter
device for one whole week.
Many thanks are addressed to Simon Wandel, Christian Schindler and Denis Aydin
for statistical support and valuable discussions.
iv
I wish to thank Kerstin Hug, Evelyn Mohler, Damiano Urbinello, Sarah Rajkumar,
Alex Ineichen, Martin Hertach, Daniela Domeisen and Julia Dratva for proofreading
(parts of) my thesis and giving me helpful feedback. A special thank goes to Kerstin
Hug for her effort in helping improving my manuscript.
I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Marcel Tanner from the Swiss TPH for attending this thesis
as representative of the faculty and Prof. Dr. Peter Acherman for his support as co-
referent.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family, my mom and dad for always
believing in me and for supporting me with everything that I do. Thanks go to my
sisters and my brother for always being there for me. Last but not least, many
thanks and all my love to my Martin. Thank you for everything that you do for me,
especially for pampering me with exquisite self-cooked meals at the end of a long
working day.
Sumary v
Summary
Background
Exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs), as produced by mo-
bile phone base stations, broadcast transmitters and cordless phones, has consid-
erably increased over the past 20 years, especially due to the rapid expansion of
the mobile phone communication network. Little is known about typical RF-EMF
exposure levels and the spatial and temporal variability of RF-EMFs in our environ-
ment. Moreover, the contribution of the various exposure sources to total exposure
has not been quantified. In general, two types of exposure sources can be distin-
guished: sources operating close to the body such as personal mobile devices, and
environmental far-field sources such as e.g. mobile phone base stations resulting in
homogenous whole-body exposure. Only recently have portable exposure meters
(exposimeters) become available. These devices are promising for quantifying indi-
vidual exposure to the most relevant environmental far-field RF-EMF sources during
their typical daily life activities, but are not expected to realistically represent expo-
sure from sources operating close to the body because the measurements are
heavily influenced by the distance between the emitting device and the exposimeter.
In addition, exposimeters are not suitable for use in large-scale epidemiological
studies, particularly due to the high costs and the tremendous effort for study par-
ticipants involved.
Parallel to the increase in RF-EMF exposure, public concern has grown regarding
possible adverse health effects of RF-EMFs, in particular concerning non-specific
symptoms such as headache. However, to date, only a few epidemiological studies
have addressed the possible health effects of environmental RF-EMF exposure. The
main reason for that is that assessment of RF-EMF exposure in everyday life is
highly challenging. Most epidemiological studies conducted so far were of cross-
sectional design, where data on exposure and health are collected at the same
point in time. These studies have several drawbacks; in particular they are limited
for drawing conclusions about a causal relationship between exposure and health
outcomes.
vi
Objectives
The aim of this thesis is to determine the distribution of individual RF-EMF exposure
levels in daily life and to identify the factors relevant for the exposure in order to
develop an RF-EMF exposure model. In addition, possible non-specific health effects
resulting from everyday RF-EMF exposure are examined.
Methods
This thesis was conducted within the framework of the QUALIFEX project (health-
related quality of life and radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure: prospec-
tive cohort study). QUALIFEX consists of two parts: the exposimeter and main study.
In the exposimeter study, 166 volunteers from the region of Basel carried an ex-
posimeter for one week in order to measure their individual RF-EMF exposure. The
participants completed an activity diary and a questionnaire on exposure relevant
behaviours. In a validation study, we repeated the exposure measurements of 32
study participants on average 21 weeks after the first measurement. Moreover,
spot measurements in the bedroom of the participants and data on exposure levels
as perceived by the participants were collected and the geo-coded distance to the
closest fixed site transmitter (mobile phone base stations or broadcast transmitter)
was computed. The mean residential RF-EMF from fixed site transmitters was com-
puted using a geospatial propagation model. We developed a nonlinear full expo-
sure prediction model by combining the exposimeter measurements, the question-
naire data and the modelled residential RF-EMF.
In the main study, a questionnaire survey investigating potential health effects
caused by RF-EMF exposure was conducted in a randomly selected sample of 1375
participants. The questionnaire contained standardised questions on non-specific
symptoms (somatic complaints, headache and sleep impairment) and tinnitus. Envi-
ronmental far-field RF-EMF exposure was assessed using the full exposure predic-
tion model. In order to estimate exposure to close to body sources, objective opera-
tor data on mobile phone use as well as self-reported data on mobile and cordless
phone use were collected. A follow-up survey was conducted one year after the
baseline survey.
