title: Children's health and RF EMF exposure. Views from a risk assessment and risk communication perspective.
abstract: A review of the scientific literature published until August 2010, covering epidemiological studies on the effects of RF EMF exposure on the incidence of brain tumours and leukaemia in children as well as experimental studies on RF EMF effects on cognition and CNS in children, reveals no or only scant evidence for the assumption that RF EMF exposure poses a hazard to children. This result is at odds with public risk perceptions, i.e. prevailing concerns of (at least part of) the public about adverse health effect of RF EMF. Consequences for risk communication are discussed. A scientifically sound and easy-to-understand risk communication is especially exacerbated by the fact that current risk assessments cannot exclude that RF EMF might have adverse health effects due remaining knowledge gaps, but especially due to the impossibility to prove a non-effect.
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), ITAS, Berlin, Germany. peter.wiedemann@itas.fzk.de
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wiedemann
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schütz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D040421:Cell Phone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000528:radiation effects; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007953:Leukemia, Radiation-Induced / Q000209:etiology; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000209:etiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000528:radiation effects; D011639:Public Opinion; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D018570:Risk Assessment