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Home , Epidemiology, In vitro

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Epidemiology, human, animal and studies

Studies of potential health effects (human ) Human Laboratory Studies Epidemiological studies are of primary Laboratory studies of human from radiofrequency (RF) importance in health assessment volunteers are complementary to electromagnetic exposures can be because of their direct relevance to epidemiological studies. They are broadly classified according to human populations in their natural conducted in controlled environments, environment. They can be designed to which allow much better exposure the biological model that was investigate medium and long‐term assessments and control of potential studied, ranging from: associations between RF exposures and and confounders. However, they a wide of illnesses. generally use much smaller and less epidemiological studies of human varied human subject groups, are populations; human laboratory If large enough and well constructed, limited to the study of short‐term they can also detect interactions with transient effects, and can miss potential studies; animal () studies, other factors in the environment. interactions between the studied agent and; cellular () studies. Conversely, epidemiological results can and other natural environmental be biased or confounded by factors. Although human studies are unrecognised influences that affect the generally considered to be of of the health effects under The scope of human studies is also study. They are also prone to often limited by ethical and practical most direct relevance to health difficulties with , considerations. effect assessments, each study often relying on approximate measures

type has complementary such as subject recall or administrative records (e.g. bills). Long‐ strengths and weaknesses that term (>10 yrs) epidemiological studies all contribute to a final health risk are very expensive and of course take a long time to complete. assessment.

Animal (in vivo) Studies Cellular (in vitro) Studies Exposure Assessment Animal studies can offer a quicker and Studies in tissues, living cells and cell‐ Expert assessment of RF exposure is more flexible approach for health effect free systems play a supporting role in needed for all study types and is critical studies. They are still bound by ethical health risk assessments. Cellular model to their proper design and constraints but they allow much greater systems are excellent candidates for interpretation. This is termed dosimetry. diversity in the range of studied testing the plausibility of mechanistic For epidemiological studies that rely on potential health effects and the level of hypotheses and investigating the ability participant recall of past phone use this exposure than would be permitted for of RF exposures to have synergistic may be validated against objective human studies. Animals naturally are effects with agents of known biological measures such billing records or special less able to communicate subjective activity. They can provide useful phones. Other studies may require symptoms (like headaches) but models pointers for the of combinations of direct measurements have been devised for many types of animal and epidemiology studies and and complicated computer models to human illness. are relatively cheap and unconstrained determine the exposure to the area of by ethical practicalities compared to the interest. Animals with short life spans (e.g. 2 other study types. Thousands of years for mice) provide opportunities to endpoints can be quickly and cheaply Exposure systems must also ensure that study ‘whole of life’ effects such as tested for some assays, such as in other environmental factors such as illness rates and life span, and exposure and proteomics. However, temperature, noise or light do not affect conditions can be rigorously controlled, although useful for generating the under study. even for continuous exposures. Some hypotheses, they do not generally animal species, such as transgenic mice, provide definitive evidence for human have been specially bioengineered to health effects due to their lack of provide models for the promotion of relevance to complex whole body certain , often over a shortened systems. exposure period. The main drawback of animal studies is their more limited relevance to human health given their different physiological systems, which might reduce or increase the response to RF exposures compared to humans.

Where to go for more information GSMA: http://www.gsmworld.com/health

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