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Mobile phone base stations and early childhood cancers; Comparison of exposure models used in the UK childhood cancer study and Dutch studies on RF-EMF and health

Projectomschrijving

Goed, beter, best in het schatten van blootstelling aan radiofrequente velden

Met deze internationale samenwerkingsubsidie zijn twee computermodellen vergeleken die de blootstelling aan radiofrequente elektromagnetische velden (RF-EMV) afkomstig van zendmasten schatten. Beide modellen worden gebruikt voor epidemiologische studies naar gezondheidseffecten van EMV. Het Institute for Risk Assessment (IRAS) van de Universiteit Utrecht werkte hiervoor samen met het Imperial College in London. Zij ontwikkelden het model Geomorf. Het tweede model NISMap is gemaakt door de Zwitserse onderzoeker Dr. Bürgi. In de Engelse stad Cheltenham zijn 50 metingen gedaan die vergeleken zijn met de schattingen van de modellen. Beide modellen bleken goed, maar NISMap bleek iets nauwkeuriger. Dit komt doordat NISMap gebruik maakt van meer informatie over de zendmasten en gebouwen. Door deze studie kunnen de modellen verbeterd worden. Bovendien kunnen mogelijke verschillen in de resultaten uit epidemiologische studies wellicht verklaard worden door het gebruik van het ene of het andere model.

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Samenvatting van de aanvraag

Public concern has been raised about exposures of young children to mobile phone telephony, as the developing brain and other tissues might be more susceptible to low level exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, compared to adults. The Division of Environmental Epidemiology of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) Utrecht University has recently been awarded several grants for research on RF-EMF and health. These studies comprise both health effects among children (cognition) and adults (cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and health symptoms). In these studies, exposure to RF-EMF from mobile phone masts are modeled using a geospatial model called NISMAP. The model considers the location and transmission patterns of the transmitters, the three-dimensional topography, and shielding effects by buildings. Incorporating the effect of shielding is important as the difference in RF-EMF exposure between an obstructed and unobstructed transmission path easily amounts to orders of magnitude. In the recently published case-control study on mobile phone base stations and early childhood cancers in the UK a model (GEOMORF) was used that did not incorporate the shielding effect of buildings. Model validation showed that the GEOMORF model correlated only moderately with measured RF-EMF (R2=0.3) in urban settings. This compares unfavourably to NISMAP which in a validation study in Basel, Switzerland was shown to correlate moderately strong with measured RF-fields (R2=0.66). Therefore, the application of NISMAP in the UK childhood cancer study might improve the exposure accuracy and also the ability of the study to identify potential (small) effects. Furthermore, as the UK study team has extensive measurement data the UK study area will provide an additional validation set for NISMAP. Together with ongoing validation studies in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and the aforementioned study in Basel, Switzerland this will provide a large validation set incorporating several different urban areas. We propose the setup of an international collaboration with researchers at Imperial College London, UK, to apply NISMAP to an urban area (Cheltenham) and compare the model output of RF-EMF to estimates obtained from the GEOMORF model and to measured RF-EMF. The collaboration will be beneficial for both institutions. Imperial College London will gain knowledge on 3D RF-EMF modelling. IRAS, Utrecht University, will obtain an additional validation set on the performance of NISMAP which can be used in ongoing studies. Especially, the ability of the UK measurements to be attributed to a specific antenna would provide valuable data on the ability of NISMAP to successfully model propagation and obstruction of RF-EMF. Lastly, we will explore the feasibility of implementing NISMAP in the UK childhood cancer study. No studies on childhood cancer have been funded under the Dutch EMF and health program. Potentially improving the UK childhood cancer study or at least fostering a better understanding of the validity of the RF-EMF exposure assessment in the study is therefore of importance as it is the largest study to date on this topic and as such influential in the risk assessment of RF-EMF and health.

Onderwerpen

Kenmerken

Projectnummer:
85500024
Looptijd: 100%
Looptijd: 100 %
2012
2014
Onderdeel van programma:
Gerelateerde subsidieronde:
Projectleider en penvoerder:
Prof. dr. ir. R.C.H. Vermeulen
Verantwoordelijke organisatie:
Universiteit Utrecht