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Association between exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields assessed by dosimetry and acute symptoms in children and adolescents: a population based cross-sectional study.

No Effects Found

Heinrich S, Thomas S, Heumann C, von Kries R, Radon K · 2010

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Personal dosimeter measurements found headaches and concentration problems in highest-exposed children, though researchers attributed findings to chance rather than RF effects.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

German researchers used personal dosimeters to measure radiofrequency radiation exposure in nearly 3,000 children and adolescents over 24 hours, then tracked acute symptoms like headaches and concentration problems. While they found a few statistically significant associations between higher RF exposure and symptoms, the researchers concluded these were likely due to chance rather than actual health effects because the results weren't consistent and disappeared when analyzing the highest-exposed participants separately.

Study Details

The increase in numbers of mobile phone users was accompanied by some concern that exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) might adversely affect acute health especially in children and adolescents. The authors investigated this potential association using personal dosimeters.

A 24-hour exposure profile of 1484 children and 1508 adolescents was generated in a population-base...

Only few of the large number of investigated associations were found to be statistically significant...

We observed few statistically significant results which are not consistent over the two time points. Furthermore, when the 10% of the participants with the highest exposure are taken into consideration the significant results of the main analysis could not be confirmed. Based on the pattern of these results, we assume that the few observed significant associations are not causal but rather occurred by chance.

Cite This Study
Heinrich S, Thomas S, Heumann C, von Kries R, Radon K (2010). Association between exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields assessed by dosimetry and acute symptoms in children and adolescents: a population based cross-sectional study. Environ Health. 9:75, 2010 .
Show BibTeX
@article{s_2010_association_between_exposure_to_2761,
  author = {Heinrich S and Thomas S and Heumann C and von Kries R and Radon K},
  title = {Association between exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields assessed by dosimetry and acute symptoms in children and adolescents: a population based cross-sectional study.},
  year = {2010},
  doi = {10.1186/1476-069X-9-75},
  url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1476-069X-9-75},
}

Quick Questions About This Study

German researchers used personal dosimeters to measure radiofrequency radiation exposure in nearly 3,000 children and adolescents over 24 hours, then tracked acute symptoms like headaches and concentration problems. While they found a few statistically significant associations between higher RF exposure and symptoms, the researchers concluded these were likely due to chance rather than actual health effects because the results weren't consistent and disappeared when analyzing the highest-exposed participants separately.