Karipidis Ken, Brzozek Chris, Mate Rohan, Bhatt Chhavi Raj, Loughran Sarah, Wood Andrew W
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, Melbourne, Australia.
School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Environ Evid. 2023 May 11;12(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s13750-023-00304-3.
BACKGROUND: Exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF), particularly from telecommunications sources, is one of the most common and fastest growing anthropogenic factors on the environment. In many countries, humans are protected from harmful RF EMF exposure by safety standards that are based on guidelines by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The ICNIRP guidelines are based on knowledge of how RF EMF affects the human body, however, there are currently no recognised international guidelines to specifically protect animals and plants. Whether the ICNIRP guidelines for humans are adequate to provide protection to the environment is a subject of active debate. There is some public concern that new telecommunications technologies, like the 5G mobile phone network may affect the natural environment. This systematic map presents a searchable database of all the available evidence on whether anthropogenic RF EMF has an effect on plants and animals in the environment. The map also identifies gaps in knowledge, recommends future research and informs environmental and radiation protection authorities. METHODS: The method used was published in an a priori protocol. Searches included peer-reviewed and grey literature published in English with no time and geographic restrictions. The EMF-Portal, PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched, and the resulting articles were screened in three stages: title, abstract and full text. Studies were included with a subject population of all animals and plants, with exposures to anthropogenic RF EMF (frequency range 100 kHz-300 GHz) compared to no or lower-level exposure, and for any outcomes related to the studied populations. For each included study, metadata were extracted on key variables of interest that were used to represent the distribution of available evidence. REVIEW FINDINGS: The initial search, search update and supplementary searches produced 24,432 articles and of those 334 articles (237 on fauna and 97 on flora) that were relevant were included in the systematic map. The vast majority of studies were experiments conducted in a laboratory rather than observational studies of animals and plants in the natural environment. The majority of the studies investigated exposures with frequencies between 300 and 3000 MHz, and although the exposure level varied, it was mainly low and below the ICNIRP limits. Most of the animal studies investigated insects and birds, whereas grains and legumes were the most investigated plants. Reproduction, development and behaviour were the most investigated effects for animals, and germination and growth for plants. The vast majority of the studies employed poor quality methods. CONCLUSION: There are distinct evidence clusters: for fauna, on insect and bird reproduction, development and behaviour; and for flora, grain and legume germination and growth that would benefit from specific systematic reviews. The systematic map also highlights the clear need for investigating the effects of RF EMF on more species and more types of effects, and for an improvement in the quality of all studies.
背景:暴露于射频(RF)电磁场(EMF),尤其是来自电信源的电磁场,是环境中最常见且增长最快的人为因素之一。在许多国家,基于国际非电离辐射防护委员会(ICNIRP)的指南制定的安全标准保护人类免受有害的射频电磁场暴露。ICNIRP指南基于射频电磁场如何影响人体的知识,然而,目前尚无专门保护动植物的公认国际指南。ICNIRP的人类指南是否足以保护环境是一个激烈辩论的话题。公众担心新的电信技术,如5G移动电话网络可能会影响自然环境。本系统综述地图展示了一个可搜索的数据库,其中包含关于人为射频电磁场是否对环境中的动植物产生影响的所有现有证据。该地图还识别了知识空白,推荐了未来的研究方向,并为环境和辐射防护当局提供信息。 方法:所使用的方法已在先验方案中发表。搜索包括以英文发表的同行评审文献和灰色文献,无时间和地理限制。对EMF-Portal、PubMed和科学网数据库进行了搜索,对检索到的文章分三个阶段进行筛选:标题、摘要和全文。纳入的研究对象为所有动植物,将暴露于人为射频电磁场(频率范围100kHz - 300GHz)与未暴露或低水平暴露进行比较,并关注与研究种群相关的任何结果。对于每项纳入研究,提取了关键变量的元数据,用于表示现有证据的分布情况。 综述结果:初步搜索、搜索更新和补充搜索共产生24432篇文章,其中334篇相关文章(237篇关于动物,97篇关于植物)被纳入系统综述地图。绝大多数研究是在实验室进行的实验,而非对自然环境中的动植物进行的观察性研究。大多数研究调查的暴露频率在300至3000MHz之间,尽管暴露水平各不相同,但主要较低且低于ICNIRP限值。大多数动物研究调查的是昆虫和鸟类,而谷物和豆类是研究最多的植物。动物方面,繁殖、发育和行为是研究最多的影响;植物方面,发芽和生长是研究最多的影响。绝大多数研究采用的方法质量较差。 结论:有明显的证据集群:动物方面,关于昆虫和鸟类的繁殖、发育和行为;植物方面,关于谷物和豆类的发芽和生长,这些集群将受益于具体的系统综述。系统综述地图还突出表明,显然需要研究射频电磁场对更多物种和更多类型影响的作用,并且需要提高所有研究的质量。
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