Do TETRA (Airwave) base station signals have a short-term impact on health and well-being? A randomized double-blind provocation study.
BACKGROUND
"Airwave" is the new communication system currently being rolled out across the United Kingdom for the police and emergency services, based on the Terrestrial Trunked Radio Telecommunications System (TETRA). Some police officers have complained about skin rashes, nausea, headaches, and depression as a consequence of using their Airwave handsets. In addition, a small subgroup in the population self-report being sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in general.


OBJECTIVE
We conducted a randomized double-blind provocation study to establish whether short-term exposure to a TETRA base station signal has an impact on the health and well-being of individuals with self-reported "electrosensitivity" and of participants who served as controls.


METHODS
Fifty-one individuals with self-reported electrosensitivity and 132 age- and sex-matched controls participated in an open provocation test; 48 sensitive and 132 control participants went on to complete double-blind tests in a fully screened semianechoic chamber. Heart rate, skin conductance, and blood pressure readings provided objective indices of short-term physiological response. Visual analog scales and symptom scales provided subjective indices of well-being.


RESULTS
We found no differences on any measure between TETRA and sham (no signal) under double-blind conditions for either controls or electrosensitive participants, and neither group could detect the presence of a TETRA signal at rates greater than chance (50%). When conditions were not double blind, however, the self-reported electrosensitive individuals did report feeling worse and experienced more severe symptoms during TETRA compared with sham.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that the adverse symptoms experienced by electrosensitive individuals are due to the belief of harm from TETRA base stations rather than to the low-level EMF exposure itself.
Wallace
Denise
D
Department of Psychology and Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom.
Eltiti
Stacy
S
Ridgewell
Anna
A
Garner
Kelly
K
Russo
Riccardo
R
Sepulveda
Francisco
F
Walker
Stuart
S
Quinlan
Terence
T
Dudley
Sandra
S
Maung
Sithu
S
Deeble
Roger
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Fox
Elaine
E
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000528:radiation effects; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000528:radiation effects; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000528:radiation effects; D011897:Random Allocation; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006113:United Kingdom