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UK Health Protection Agency WHO International EMF Project IAC Meeting 05-06 June 2012 Report from the UK Health Protection Agency The Health Protection Agency (HPA) provides an integrated approach to protecting UK public health through the provision of support and advice to the National Health Service, local authorities, emergency services, other Arms Length Bodies, the Department of Health and the Devolved Administrations (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). The HPA has a large network of approximately 4000 staff based at four major centres and regionally and locally throughout England. The Centre for Infections at Colindale is the base for communicable disease surveillance and specialist microbiology. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) at South Mimms assures the quality of biological medicines. The Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) has its headquarters at Chilton and the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, focusing on applied microbiological research and emergency response, is based at Porton Down. There is also a small central office based in London. CRCE carries out the Health Protection Agency’s work on ionising and non-ionising radiations. It undertakes research to advance knowledge about protection from the risks of these radiations; provides laboratory and technical services; runs training courses; provides expert information and has a significant advisory role in the UK. As part of wide-ranging reforms to the health systems in the UK, the HPA is to be abolished from April 2013 and a new organisation called Public Health England (PHE) is being established. PHE will be an Executive Agency and include the functions of the HPA. It will have a Board with a non- executive majority and its CEO will report to English health ministers. This report focuses first on policy related aspects stemming from UK scientific advice on EMFs, then on research carried out at HPA and finally on the work of the independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR), which reports to HPA. 1 Formal advice and policy developments 1.1 Low frequency fields SAGE was a Government supported stakeholder group which has looked at the feasibility of options for reducing exposure to power frequency electric and magnetic fields as part of a precautionary policy. The group was set up shortly after HPA’s 2004 advice to adopt the ICNIRP guidelines and also to consider the need for further precaution (over and above the guidelines) in relation to the exposure of people to EMFs [1] . SAGE produced two main reports, referred to as “interim assessments” [2] [3] and Government issued responses to these [4] [5] drawing on further HPA advice that HPA provided. The interim assessments identified options and made recommendations on practical precautionary measures to reduce public exposure, some of which have been endorsed and adopted by Government. In both the first and second assessments, effective communication of information to the public was highlighted and HPA has taken this forward with a new working group, the ELF EMF Communication Working Group. The group was set up to assist HPA in communicating information and advice on reducing exposure to low frequency EMFs, and new material for the website is nearing completion. 1.2 Radiofrequency fields HPA responded to the May 2011 announcement from IARC that RF fields had been classified as “possibly carcinogenic” to humans by emphasising the consistency of the IARC classification with previous reviews of the science and with its own existing precautionary advice on the use of mobile phones [6] . In addition to complying with exposure guidelines, this includes that the non-essential use of mobile phones by children should be discouraged and that other users should be empowered to make choices to reduce their exposures through the availability of appropriate information, such as SAR values. The independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) published a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence relevant to possible health effects of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields in April 2012 [7] , and this served as an opportunity to review HPA’s advice on radiofrequencies [8] . AGNIR’s main conclusion was that, although a substantial amount of research has been conducted in this area, there is no convincing evidence that RF field exposures below guideline levels cause health effects in adults or children. Hence, a recommendation to follow the ICNIRP guidelines remains central to HPA’s advice on exposures to RF fields. Also, while noting the overall reassuring conclusions of the AGNIR report, HPA decided to maintain its precautionary advice regarding mobile phones because of limited information regarding cancer effects in the long term, and the continuing possibility of biological effects, although not apparently harmful, occurring at exposure levels within the ICNIRP guidelines. The HPA Wi-Fi project (see below) was completed during the year, with the publication of a third scientific paper and an update of the HPA Wi-Fi webpage to include the results [9] . The results from the project were an input to the AGNIR report on the health effects from radiofrequency fields and reinforced the position adopted by the HPA at the beginning of the project that exposures are small in relation to the ICNIRP guidelines and less than those from mobile phones. HPA maintains the view that there is no consistent evidence of health effects from RF exposures below guideline levels and no reason why schools and others should not use Wi-Fi equipment. 2 Recent EMF research at HPA Examples and key publications over the past year are included below. 2.1.1 EMF protective clothing Protective garments are worn by electric power workers to shield the body against electromagnetic fields. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method was used to calculate SAR in the heterogeneous human voxel model NORMAN, clad in a protective suit and exposed to RF electromagnetic fields between 65 MHz and 3 GHz [10]‎ . The representation of the suit was produced for this work by the modelling and voxelisation of a surface rendered object, based on the dimensions of the male voxel phantom. The calculations showed that the peak localised SAR in the head was higher than that calculated for a model without a protective suit for a number of exposure situations. These localised SAR values could be up to three times the values of those calculated for a model without a protective suit for a particular frequency. It is thought that the SAR hotspots in the head are caused by resonances in a cavity, which in this case is the conductive hood of the suit. 2.1.2 Exposure to Wi-Fi in schools The Agency has completed its programme of research into wireless local area networks (WLANs) and their use. The study involved the assessment of the electric field strengths and the radiated powers around a selection of laptops and access points, representing the most popular Wi-Fi equipment used in UK schools [11]‎ , computational dosimetry to assess the localised specific energy absorption rates (SARs) in models of adults and children [12]‎ and acquiring data on the proportion of the time for which devices transmit during typical school lessons [13]‎ . The data gathered during the project reinforced the position adopted by the HPA at the beginning of the project that exposures are small in relation to the ICNIRP guidelines and less than those from mobile phones. 2.1.3 MobiKids HPA is taking part in Mobikids, an EU-backed international case-control study, led by CREAL in Barcelona and which began in March 2009 [14] . This project aims to identify the potential associations between the use of communication devices and other environmental risk factors and brain tumours in young people. HPA is leading the exposure assessment work package for the study, including measurement of the ELF magnetic fields emitted from the battery of mobile phones and simulation of the corresponding induced current densities inside the body. 2.1.4 Dielectric properties research A study of the dielectric properties of human pregnancy-related tissues has been published [15] and a parallel study on dielectric properties of rat foetal tissue has also been published [16]. A review paper on the state of knowledge regarding the dielectric properties of tissues their variation with age and their relevance in exposure of children to electromagnetic fields has been published [17]. 3 Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation Protection (AGNIR) 3.1 Background AGNIR is an independent advisory group with the remit to review work on the biological effects of non-ionising radiation relevant to human health and to advise on research priorities. The Group reports to the sub-committee of the Board of the HPA that deals with radiation, chemical and environmental hazards and has issued fourteen major reports and a number of statements since it was set up in 1990. These reports have mainly covered reviews of experimental and epidemiological studies, together with exposure data relevant to assessing possible health effects from exposures to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and ultraviolet radiation (UVR). They have been a valuable input to HPA (and previously NRPB), advice and have been used in the development of exposure guidelines as well as being widely circulated and used by the UK Government and the devolved administrations. The ongoing programme of work of AGNIR is summarised below and it is also given on the HPA web site [18]‎ . 3.2 Radiofrequency radiation The Independent Expert group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) drew attention to concerns on this topic in its 2000 report and called for more research. Similar calls were raised in other countries around the same time, and also within Europe and by the WHO. The result has been a substantial programme of research supported by governments, industry and the European Union. In recognising that research would proceed apace, IEGMP recommended that a further review of the science should be carried out within three years of its own report and the AGNIR prepared such a review in 2003.
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