Europe

EMFs in Europe

There is quite a lot of activity in Europe on EMFs. We gather together here information on what is happening on several different fronts, such as exposure limits for the public and workers and reviews of the science by the Commission and the Parliament.

European exposure limits for the public
The EU issued a Recommendation on exposures for the public in 1999. This is a recommendation to Governments to implement exposure guidelines. It does not apply directly to industry or members of the public.

The numbers in the EU Recommendation are identical to those in the ICNIRP Guidelines. However, the EU Recommendation says they should be applied only when the time of exposure is significant, and only after Governments have considered both the risks and benefits in deciding whether action is required or not.

In 2004, the UK Government announced that the UK would follow the Recommendation, but the details of how it will apply are still being worked out. See more under exposure limits.

The EU has compiled a report on the status of the EU Recommendation in the various countries of Europe.

European exposure limits for the workers
In 1992, there was a proposal for a European Physical Agents Directive, which would have limited exposures of workers to four different agents: vibration, noise, EMFs, and optical radiation. In 1994 it was modified by the European Parliament, but after that it made little further progress, and in 1999 it was decided to abandon the single Directive covering four agents, and to bring in four separate Directives. The Vibrations Directive came into force in 2002, and the Noise Directive is making progress. The EMF Directive came into force in 2004.

European Physical Agents Directive
In December 2002, the draft text was issued of a European Directive on occupational exposure to EMFs. After much modification, it was finally passed in April 2004. It basically gives force to the ICNIRP exposure guidelines. For the latest updates, see under exposure limits. The UK (Health and Safety Executive) has until 2008 to bring the provisions of the Directive into force in the UK.

Scientific opinion of the Commission
The most recent scientific opinion of the Commission on EMFs was produced as a draft for consultation in September 2006 and then adopted in final form in March 2007 by SCENIHR – the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly identified Health Risks.

Their conclusion on power frequencies was:

“The previous conclusion that ELF fields are possibly carcinogenic, chiefly based on childhood leukaemia results, is still valid. There is no known mechanism to explain how electromagnetic field exposure may induce leukaemia. The effects have not been replicated in animal studies.”

and

“For breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, recent research has indicated that an association is unlikely. For neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumours, the link to ELF fields remains uncertain. No consistent relationship between ELF fields and self reported systems (sometimes referred to as electrical hypersensitivity) has been demonstrated.”

This was an update of the previous scientific opinion which was in October 2002 by CSTEE – the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment.

“With regard to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields, the CSTEE reached the following conclusions:

• Combined analyses of the epidemiological studies on the association between exposure to ELF and childhood leukaemia have strengthened the evidence of an association. However, given some inconsistencies in exposure measurements and the absence of other criteria commonly used in assessing causality (particularly a plausible explanation of underlying biological mechanisms, (see above), the association does not meet adequate criteria for being considered causal. Thus the overall evidence for 50/60 Hz magnetic fields to produce childhood leukaemia must be regarded as being limited*(*).

• The effect, if any, seems to be limited to exposures above 0.4 µT. In European countries, the proportion of children exposed to such levels is less than 1%. Assuming that the risk is doubled among the exposed, in the general population this would roughly correspond to an excess incidence of less than 1% childhood leukaemia. To put this in context, in European countries, the incident of leukaemia is around 45 per million children (age 0-14) per year.

• Whether changes of recommended exposure limits to 50/60 Hz magnetic fields (12) ought to be recommended on this basis is a problem for risk managers, falling beyond the remit of the CSTEE.

• There is no convincing suggestions of any other carcinogenic effect on either children or adults. Current information on this respect does not provide for reconsidering exposure limits.

• Reports on possibly hypersensitive individuals require confirmation and do not provide a basis for proposing changes in the exposure limits.”

Scientific opinion of the European Parliament
STOA – Scientific and Technical Options Assessment – commissioned a report for the European Parliament on EMFs from Essor France in 1999. The Parliament then commissioned a supplementary report from Dr Gerald Hyland. That supplementary report was criticised heavily by various organisations, among them ICNIRP and Cost 244.

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