Possible Effects Of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) On Human Health

ABSTRACT

The various equipments generating electromagnetic radiations such as wireless phones, various electrical equipments etc. have now become a very important part of life. Life cannot be imagined without these equipments. These electromagnetic devices have various uses in domestic, industries and medicine. Induction heating is used in industries, MRI and SCAN are used to find out the abnormal conditions in human body and hyperthermia technique is used to treat cancer and tumours. In spite of all uses the electromagnetic fields imposes great danger to the human body. Electromagnetic pollution (or EMF pollution) is a term given to all the man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of various frequencies, which fills homes, workplaces and public spaces. When something in the environment is called a pollutant, it implies that it is somehow harmful to nature and to human beings

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

• AIM OF THE STUDY
• OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• SCOPE OF THE STUDY
• LIMITATION OF STUDY
• RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
• RESEARCH QUESTION
• TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• REVIEW OF THE STUDY
• DIFERENT TYPES OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD
• HAZARDS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC POLLUTION
• PROTECTION AGAINST ELECTROMAGNETIC POLLUTION

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• SOURCES AND DISTRIBUTION OF EXPOSURE IN THE POPULATION
• SOURCES OPERATED CLOSE TO THE HUMAN BODY
• SOURCES OPERATED FAR AWAY FROM THE HUMAN BODY

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT ANALYSIS

• RESULT ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWO

1.0                                                     INTRODUCTION

1.1                                        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

For the general public, Council Recommendation of 12 July 1999¹ on the limitation of exposure of the general public to electromagnetic fields (0 Hz to 300 GHz) fixes basic restrictions and reference levels to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). These restrictions and reference levels are based on the guidelines published by the International Commission on Non Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)². The ICNIRP guidelines had been endorsed by the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC)³ in its opinion on health effects of EMFs of 25–26 June 1998⁴.

For workers, the Council and the Parliament have adopted Directive 2004/40/EC of 29 April 2004⁵ on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (EMFs).

In a questionnaire sent to Member States in 2000, all have notified the Commission that they have implemented the provisions of Council Recommendation on the limitation of exposure of the general public to EMFs. The position of the new member states has not yet been ascertained.

The Commission has announced that it intends to prepare a report to the Council on the implementation of the Recommendation, taking account of an earlier report of 2002 on implementation by the then member states.⁶

The Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) was requested to prepare an update of the Scientific Steering Committee’s opinion. The request derived from the increasing exposure to EMF consequent to the further growth in the use of electricity, from the continuous development of the telecommunications industry, and to a rapid increase in the installation of transmitter masts used as radiotelephone base stations. In addition to domestic, industrial and medical electrical appliances and devices, the high voltage overhead transmission lines (and to a lesser extent underground cables) are major sources of exposure to Extremely Low Frequencies (ELF) in the environment. The CSTEE opinion “on Possible effects of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF), Radio Frequency Fields (RF) and Microwave Radiation on human health”⁷, of 30 October 2001, concluded that the information that had become available since the SSC opinion of June 1999 did not justify revision of the exposure limits recommended by the Council⁸.

A substantial number of scientific publications and reviews on the possible health effects of  EMF (focusing mostly on mobile telephones) have become available since the CSTEE opinion of 2001, for example the 2002 Dutch report⁹, the 2003 AGNIR report¹⁰ and the 2004 British National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) report on “Mobile phones and health”¹¹, which is the most recent of them. The NRPB provided a detailed review of the recent literature and useful contribution to the discussions on whether there are health effects related to the use of mobile phones. The report concluded that there is no hard evidence at present that the health of the public is being adversely affected by mobile phone technologies but uncertainties remain and a continued precautionary approach is recommended until the situation is clarified.

Additional results are expected shortly from Community funded research and development (R&D) activities, from national programmes, and from work within the International EMF Project of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Community funded R&D comprises direct support to the Joint Research Centre and indirect support to competitive projects under the 5^th Framework Programme¹² and the 6^th Framework Programme (FP6)¹³ for Research and Technological Development. Under FP6, the EMF-NET Coordination Action¹⁴ brings together European and national EMF programmes. EMF-NET will start publishing its first interpretation reports at the end of 2005. In total, this project will run another three years.

As part of its mission to protect public health and in response to public concern over health effects of EMF exposure, WHO established the International EMF Project¹⁵ in 1996 to assess the scientific evidence of possible health effects of EMF in the frequency range from 0 to 300 GHz. The EMF Project encourages focused research to fill important gaps in knowledge and to facilitate the development of internationally acceptable standards limiting EMF exposure.

In view of the amount of scientific evidence that has become available since the publication of the CSTEE of 30 October 2001 and of the Commission’s intention to prepare a report to the Council and the frequency of new scientific publications on the health effects on EMF which require rapid assessment, the SCENIHR is asked to both update the previous opinion of the CSTEE and to continuously monitor new information that may influence the assessment of risks to human health in this area.

1.3                                                  AIM OF THE STUDY

Exposure to electromagnetic fields is not a new phenomenon. However, during the 20th century, environmental exposure to man-made electromagnetic fields has been steadily increasing as growing electricity demand, ever-advancing technologies and changes in social behaviour have created more and more artificial sources. Everyone is exposed to a complex mix of weak electric and magnetic fields, both at home and at work, from the generation and transmission of electricity, domestic appliances and industrial equipment, to telecommunications and broadcasting. However, the main aim of this work is to study and highlight those possible effects of electromagnetic field on human health

1.4                                              OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

At the end of this study students involved will be able to:

1. Understand the meaning of electromagnetic field.
2. Study the effect of electromagnetic field on human body

• How to protect human health against electromagnetic field

1. Appliances that produces electromagnetic field

1.5                                               PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to enlighten the Nigerian people on the possible effect of electromagnetic field on human health. Also, to bring to the public how it can be protected.

1.7                                          SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1. To help prepare solution to the problems of electromagnetic field on human health.
2. To help in determining appropriate recommendation on electromagnetic field on human health in order to improve human health.

• To make meaningful suggestions so as to overcome the problem of electromagnetic field.

1.8                                                  SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This work is on the possible effects of radiofrequency (RF) radiation on tissue and organ systems have been attributed to thermal interactions, although the existence of nonthermal effects at low field intensities is still a subject of active investigation. This work focuses on RF effects on major physiological systems and provides estimates of the threshold specific absorption rates (SARs) required to produce such effects. Organ and tissue responses to ELF fields and attempts to characterize field thresholds are also summarized. The relevance of these findings to the possible association of health effects with exposure to RF fields from electrical appliances is assessed.

1.8                                                LIMITATION OF STUDY

The study was affected by inadequate textbooks, information and the reluctance of some of the respondents from engineering companies to fill the questionnaire during the exercise.

1.9                                               RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Ho: electromagnetic field has no negative effect on human health

H1: electromagnetic field has much negative effect on human health.

Ho: electromagnetic field does not affect human body and tissue.

H1: electromagnetic field affects both human body and tissue.

1.10                                               RESEARCH QUESTION

The research questions are also follows:

• What effects has electromagnetic field on human health?
• What are appliances or machines that produces electromagnetic field?
• What measures can be used to protect human health from electromagnetic field?
• To what extent does electromagnetic field affect workers?
• Is telecommunication antenna or mast one of the causes of electromagnetic field?

1.11                                           TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

This section includes technical terms and definitions used within the document. The definitions are given in alphabetical order.

Conductivity: A property of materials that determines the magnitude of the electric current density when an electric field is impressed on the material.

Dielectric properties: In the context of this document the properties of materials conductivity and permeability.

Electric field strength (E): The magnitude of a field vector at a point that represents the force

(F) on a charge (q). E is defined as E = F/q and is expressed in units of Volt per meter (V/m).

Electromagnetic field: Electromagnetic phenomena expressed in vector functions of space and time.

Electromagnetic radiation: The propagation of energy in the form of electromagnetic waves through space.

EMF: Electromagnetic field.

Exposure: Exposure occurs wherever a person is subjected to electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields or contact currents other than those originating from physiological processes in the body.

Extremely low frequency (ELF): Extremely low frequency fields include, in this document, electromagnetic fields from 1 to 300 Hz.

Frequency modulation (FM): Frequency Modulation is a type of modulation representing information as variations in the frequency of a carrier wave. FM is often used at VHF frequencies (30 to 300 MHz) for broadcasting music and speech.

Frequency (Hz): The number of cycles of a repetitive waveform per second.

Intermediate frequencies (IF): Intermediate frequencies are, in the frame of this report, defined as frequencies between 300 Hz and 100 kHz.

Magnetic flux density (B): the magnitude of a field vector at a point that results in a force (F) on a charge (q) moving with the velocity (v). The force F is defined by F = q*(v x B) and is expressed in units of Tesla (T).

Magnetic field strength (H): the magnitude of a field vector that is equal to the magnetic flux density (B) divided by the permeability (µ) of the medium. H is defined as H = B/µ and is expressed in units of Ampere per metre (A/m).

Microwaves: Microwaves are defined in the frame of this expertise as electromagnetic waves with wavelengths of approximately 30 cm (1 GHz) to 1 mm (300 GHz).

Milliwatt (mW): A unit of power equal to 10^-3 Watt.

Nanowatt (nW): A unit of power equal to 10^-9 Watt.

Non – thermal effects (or athermal effects): An effect which can only be explained in terms of mechanisms other than increased molecular motion (i.e. heating), or occurs at absorbed power levels so low, that a thermal mechanism seems unlikely, or displays so unexpected a dependence upon some experimental variable that it is difficult to see how heating could be the cause.

Permeability: A property of materials that indicates how much polarisation occurs when an electric field is applied.

Power density (S): Power per unit area normal to the direction of propagation, usually  expressed in watts per meter squared (W/m²).

Radio frequency (RF): The frequencies between 100 kHz and 300 GHz of the electromagnetic spectrum.