The study was designed as a follow-up study to clarify the reliability of the so-called TNO study (see publication 12820). 117 healthysubjects (33 self-reported sensitive, 84 non-sensitive subjects) participated.
Distance between exposed object and exposure source
2 m
Chamber
Exposure took place in two identical but separate rooms with constant temperature and light conditions. Each room included a one-side-open exposure chamber (2.45 m x 2.3 m x 2.14 m) shielded with RF absorbers on walls and ceiling.
Setup
The antenna, tilted 45° from vertical, was located at a height of 1.5 m and a distance of 2 m from the subject. The antenna had a beam width of approximately 75° in horizontal and vertical directions, resulting in a uniform E-field distribution that was verified with a field probe. The electric field was incident with a polarization of 45° from the left back side of the subject, with an angle of 25° with respect to the ear-to-earvertical plane.
Each subject attended three experimental sessions at 1-week intervals in a randomized, double-blind crossover design. Pairs of subjects were randomly assigned to one of six possible sequences of the three exposure conditions (sham, 1 V/m and 10 V/m).
± 1.6 mW/kg and 44% uncertainty; peak value for brain
Reference articles
Zwamborn APM et al.
(2003):
Effects of Global Communication system radio-frequency fields on Well Being and Cognitive Functions of human subjects with and without subjective complaints.
Kuster N et al.
(2000):
Recommended minimal requirements and development guidelines for exposure setups of bio-experiments addressing the health risk concern of wireless communications.
In both groups, well being and perceived field strength were not associated with actual exposure levels. No consistent condition-induced changes in cognitive performance except for two marginal effects were revealed: At 10 V/m, a slight effect on speed in one of six tasks in the sensitive subjects and an effect on accuracy in another task in non-sensitive subjects was found. Both effects disappeared after multiple endpoint adjustment. In contrast to the previous study, the authors could not confirm a short-term effect of UMTSbase station-like exposure on well being. The reported effects on brain functioning were marginal and may have occurred by chance. Regarding the implications for public health due to widespread exposure in the living environment, no conclusions about long-term effects of UMTSbase station-like electromagnetic fields can be drawn from this study, as only a short-term exposure was applied.
Forschungsstiftung Mobilkommunikation (FSM; Research Foundation on Mobile Communication; at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)), Switzerland
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