Retired Reseacher, Oslo, Norway.
Rev Environ Health. 2022 Jun 27;38(3):531-546. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2022-0037. Print 2023 Sep 26.
In March 2020, ICNIRP (the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) published a set of guidelines for limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz). ICNIRP claims this publication's view on EMF and health, a view usually termed "the thermal-only paradigm", is consistent with current scientific understanding. We investigated the literature referenced in ICNIRP 2020 to assess if the variation in authors and research groups behind it meets the fundamental requirement of constituting a broad scientific base and thus a view consistent with current scientific understanding, a requirement that such an important set of guidelines is expected to satisfy. To assess if this requirement has been met, we investigated the span of authors and research groups of the referenced literature of the ICNIRP 2020 Guidelines and annexes. Our analysis shows that ICNIRP 2020 itself, and in practice all its referenced supporting literature stem from a network of co-authors with just 17 researchers at its core, most of them affiliated with ICNIRP and/or the IEEE, and some of them being ICNIRP 2020 authors themselves. Moreover, literature reviews presented by ICNIRP 2020 as being from independent committees, are in fact products of this same informal network of collaborating authors, all committees having ICNIRP 2020 authors as members. This shows that the ICNIRP 2020 Guidelines fail to meet fundamental scientific quality requirements and are therefore not suited as the basis on which to set RF EMF exposure limits for the protection of human health. With its thermal-only view, ICNIRP contrasts with the majority of research findings, and would therefore need a particularly solid scientific foundation. Our analysis demonstrates the contrary to be the case. Hence, the ICNIRP 2020 Guidelines cannot offer a basis for good governance.
2020 年 3 月，国际非电离辐射防护委员会（ICNIRP）发布了一套限制电磁场（100 kHz 至 300 GHz）暴露的指南。ICNIRP 声称，其出版物对电磁场与健康的看法，通常被称为“仅热效应范式”，与当前的科学认识一致。我们调查了 ICNIRP 2020 年参考的文献，以评估其背后的作者和研究小组的变化是否符合构成广泛科学基础的基本要求，从而与当前的科学认识一致，这是对这样一套重要指南的期望。为了评估是否满足这一要求，我们调查了 ICNIRP 2020 年指南及其附件所参考文献的作者和研究小组的跨度。我们的分析表明，ICNIRP 2020 本身，实际上其所有参考的支持文献都源于一个由 17 名核心研究人员组成的合著者网络，其中大多数人隶属于 ICNIRP 和/或 IEEE，其中一些人本身就是 ICNIRP 2020 的作者。此外，ICNIRP 2020 提出的作为独立委员会的文献综述，实际上是同一合作作者非正式网络的产物，所有委员会都有 ICNIRP 2020 的作者作为成员。这表明 ICNIRP 2020 指南未能满足基本的科学质量要求，因此不适合作为制定射频电磁场暴露限值以保护人类健康的依据。ICNIRP 以其仅热效应的观点与大多数研究结果形成对比，因此需要一个特别坚实的科学基础。我们的分析表明事实恰恰相反。因此，ICNIRP 2020 指南不能为良好的治理提供依据。
