Exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) was evaluated in an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" in 2001, based on increased childhood leukemia risk observed in epidemiological studies. We conducted a hazard assessment using available scientific evidence published before March 2015, with inclusion of new research findings from the Advanced Research on Interaction Mechanisms of electroMagnetic exposures with Organisms for Risk Assessment (ARIMMORA) project. The IARC Monograph evaluation scheme was applied to hazard identification. In ARIMMORA for the first time, a transgenic mouse model was used to mimic the most common childhood leukemia: new pathogenic mechanisms were indicated, but more data are needed to draw definitive conclusions. Although experiments in different animal strains showed exposure-related decreases of CD8+ T-cells, a role in carcinogenesis must be further established. No direct damage of DNA by exposure was observed. Overall in the literature, there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals, with only weak supporting evidence from mechanistic studies. New exposure data from ARIMMORA confirmed that if the association is nevertheless causal, up to 2% of childhood leukemias in Europe, as previously estimated, may be attributable to ELF-MF. In summary, ARIMMORA concludes that the relationship between ELF-MF and childhood leukemia remains consistent with possible carcinogenicity in humans. While this scientific uncertainty is dissatisfactory for science and public health, new mechanistic insight from ARIMMORA experiments points to future research that could provide a step-change in future assessments. Bioelectromagnetics. 37:183-189, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The widespread use of electricity raises the question of whether or not 50 Hz (power line frequency in Europe) magnetic fields (MFs) affect organisms. We investigated the transcription of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 in response to extremely low-frequency (ELF) MFs. Fields generated by three signal types (sinusoidal continuous, sinusoidal intermittent, and power line intermittent; all at 50 Hz, 1 mT) were applied and gene expression was monitored at the transcript level using an Affymetrix whole-genome microarray. Bacterial cells were grown continuously in a chemostat (dilution rate D = 0.4 h(-1)) fed with glucose-limited minimal medium and exposed to 50 Hz MFs with a homogenous flux density of 1 mT. For all three types of MFs investigated, neither bacterial growth (determined using optical density) nor culturable counts were affected. Likewise, no statistically significant change (fold-change > 2, P ≤ 0.01) in the expression of 4,358 genes and 714 intergenic regions represented on the gene chip was detected after MF exposure for 2.5 h (1.4 generations) or 15 h (8.7 generations). Moreover, short-term exposure (8 min) to the sinusoidal continuous and power line intermittent signal neither affected bacterial growth nor showed evidence for reliable changes in transcription. In conclusion, our experiments did not indicate that the different tested MFs (50 Hz, 1 mT) affected the transcription of E. coli.

Although WiFi contributes little to total radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure in our everyday environment, concern has raised whether this specific type of modulated RF-EMF causes health problems. The aim of this review is to evaluate all types of studies that investigated biological and health effects of WiFi exposure and fulfilled basic quality criteria. Eligible for inclusion were epidemiological, human experimental, in vivo and in vitro studies using realistic WiFi exposure settings. We conducted a systematic literature search for all papers published between January 1997 and August 2020 followed by a quality review addressing blinding and dosimetry in experimental studies and various types of biases in epidemiological studies. All studies fulfilling the quality criteria were descriptively summarized in terms of observation or absence of associations. From 1385 articles identified by the literature search, 23 fulfilled basic quality criteria: 6 epidemiological papers, 6 human experimental articles, 9 in vivo articles, and 2 in vitro articles. Whereas in vivo and in vitro studies applied exposure levels up to 4 W/kg, human studies dealt with exposure levels several orders of magnitude below the ICNIRP guidelines, which are typical for WiFi exposure situations in the everyday environment. Numerous outcomes ranging from biological markers to symptoms were mostly found not to be associated with WiFi exposure. Sporadic findings were not consistent in terms of outcomes or exposure-response associations. This review based on a systematic literature search and quality evaluation does not suggest detrimental health effects from WiFi exposure below regulatory limits.

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