Hot Topics. General EMF Health Effects.
Overview of Research Recommendations Concerning Health Effects of EMFs.

A researcher at the University of North Carolina presented an overview for a series of articles dealing with the health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in a supplement to Environmental Health Perspectives. The articles, prepared by a working group of the Environmental Planning Project of the Health Effects Institute, examined the frontiers of the existing knowledge of the health effects of EMFs and made recommendations for future research. Recommendations for future epidemiologic research included the need to (1) comprehensively evaluate sources and patterns of personal magnetic field exposures in order to identify exposure sources most worthy of study, (2) examine the sociology and geography of wire code to determine what mechanisms (other than magnetic field exposure) might account for the observed association with increased cancer risk, and (3) conduct detailed surveys of exposure to magnetic fields and confounding factors in occupational settings. In reproductive studies, major research recommendations included evaluating EMF exposures from sources other than video display terminals, tracking specific abnormalities suggested by laboratory studies, examining parental exposures, and making use of epidemiologic methods previously used for studies of EMF and cancer. A recommendation was made that neurobehavioral studies focus on the endpoint of depression for which the potential effect of EMF on pineal function provides a plausible mechanism. [BENER 10067]