Children’s’ cognitive function and exposure to environmental electromagnetic fields A collaborative study with the municipal health services to gain insights into exposure and associated risks

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) have developed into a nearly ubiquitous feature of our everyday environment. Very little is known about exposure of children to RF-EMF and about the potentially associated health effects including cognition. It has been suggested that children may be more vulnerable to different environmental exposures because of their developing nervous system. There have been repeated calls for research on RF-EMF exposure and children’s cognitive function since the publication of the Stewart report in 2000. In 2006, the World Health Organization identified the topic as one of the key research needs. To our knowledge, there are no reports of studies in children younger than ten years of age where health effects of environmental RF-EMF exposure during early childhood have been evaluated. In our proposed study, we aim at assessing recent (average over the last year) exposure to RF-EMF and the potential effects on cognition and behavioural aspects in five-year-old children, while accounting for other environmental exposures. We plan to do this by expanding the Amsterdam Born Children and Develop¬ment (ABCD) birth cohort study to environmental exposures. The ABCD study represents a unique opportunity for this kind of analysis: By the end of 2010, about 2500 children will have participated in the cognitive test battery of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT) program. These tasks are estimates of sensory-motor speed, visuomotor skills, and response selection. In addition, parents and teachers filled in questionnaires pertaining to behaviour, cognition and well-being of the child. Mobile phone use has been reported to start around the age of 6-7 with a rapid increase in coverage until the early teens. Until age five, mobile phone ownership is likely to be negligible and environmental RF-EMF exposures are expected to contribute the main share of RF-EMF exposure. We will assess exposure at home and at school based on a three-dimensional exposure model (ZonMW proposal no. 85500008). The model will be built using the complete records of the base stations, including the position, direction and radiation patterns, and the three-dimensional geometry of the urban environment of the municipality of Amsterdam. We will complement exposure assessment with a questionnaire for the parents to gain information on other characteristics of the child’s environment that have been shown to be important determinants of exposure (e.g. building characteristics, or the presence and use of other RF-EMF emitting appliances). In addition, we will visit schools to assess position of the classroom of the children and other relevant school characteristics. As with exposure to RF-EMF, a model for exposure to extremely-low frequency magnetic fields is currently being developed and will be available for assessing the respective residential and school exposures to these fields. We will control for the effect of other environmental exposure (i.e. air pollution, noise), which may also affect cognition. Since no previous study has evaluated effects of RF-EMF exposure in children, our study will add significant insight to this open issue. The ability to account for other environmental exposures that have been suggested to affect children’s cognition, in particular extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, ambient air pollution or noise, adds further strength to the study. In the situation as it is right now, adequate risk communication is very difficult since there is neither much data on children’s exposure to environmental RF-EMF, nor on potentially associated risks in the age group of children under 10 years. We expect our project to improve this situation especially for local partners such as the Public Health Service (GGD), who play a key role in informing the public about possible health effects of EMF. We designed our study as a joint research effort of the GGD of Amsterdam and the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences of Utrecht University. The direct involvement of both institutes into the exposure assessment, analysis and reporting of the study will further enhance knowledge transfer. In addition, a workshop will be organised, open to all GGDs, to present the study results and discuss implications of the research and strategies to inform the public at large.