Gasparini Rebecca, Gobba Fabriziomaria, Bogi Andrea, Calcagnini Giovanni, Censi Federica, Falsaperla Rosaria, Mattei Eugenio, Vivarelli Cecilia, D'Agostino Simona, Modenese Alberto
Department of Biomedical Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Physical Agents Sector, Regional Public Health Laboratory, South-East Tuscany Health Unit, Siena, Italy.
Front Public Health. 2025 Jul 28;13:1599754. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1599754. eCollection 2025.
Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) is almost ubiquitous: workers with Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMD) and Active Wearable Medical Devices (AWMD) are considered at particular risk with respect to occupational risk assessment and health surveillance (HS) procedures, due to possible electromagnetic hazards resulting in interference problems. The identification of these workers is therefore fundamental for prevention purposes. Aim of the study is to provide an estimate of the proportion of workers with AIMD and AWMD, and to list the main types of devices involved.
We performed an online survey among a sample of Occupational Physicians (OPs) from two Italian Regions.
132 OPs responded, based their answers on a whole number of more than 200,000 workers visited within HS activities in the previous year. Our results show that the 0.8% of the working population in Italy can be estimated as "particularly at risk" for EMF exposure at the workplaces due to the presence of AIMD or AWMD. The most common AIMD resulted pacemakers and implanted cardioverter defibrillators, involving the 0.24% of the workers. Considering AWMD, the most common resulted hearing aids and hormones/drugs pumps, respectively worn by the 0.25 and the 0.17% of the working population.
It should be taken into account that potential interference problems could also occur for levels of exposure to EMFs comparable to those measurable for non-professionally exposed populations. Accordingly, the conditions of increased susceptibility to EMF hazards must be carefully considered for a proper occupational EMF risk prevention: the data presented in this work provide a solid foundation for quantifying the actual impact of workers with AIMD and AWMD in the workplaces, and the main types of devices involved.
职业性接触电磁场（EMF）几乎无处不在：对于职业风险评估和健康监测（HS）程序而言，植入式有源医疗器械（AIMD）和可穿戴式有源医疗器械（AWMD）的使用者被认为面临特殊风险，因为可能存在电磁危害并导致干扰问题。因此，识别这些工人对于预防目的至关重要。本研究的目的是估计使用AIMD和AWMD的工人比例，并列出所涉及的主要设备类型。
我们对来自意大利两个地区的职业医师（OP）样本进行了在线调查。
132名OP做出了回应，他们的回答基于上一年在HS活动中诊治的超过200,000名工人。我们的结果表明，由于存在AIMD或AWMD，意大利劳动人口的0.8%可被估计为在工作场所“特别面临EMF暴露风险”。最常见的AIMD是心脏起搏器和植入式心脏复律除颤器，涉及0.24%的工人。考虑到AWMD，最常见的是助听器和激素/药物泵，分别有0.25%和0.17%的劳动人口佩戴。
应考虑到，与非职业暴露人群可测量的EMF暴露水平相当的情况下，也可能出现潜在干扰问题。因此，为了进行适当的职业EMF风险预防，必须仔细考虑对EMF危害易感性增加的情况：本研究中呈现的数据为量化AIMD和AWMD使用者在工作场所的实际影响以及所涉及的主要设备类型提供了坚实基础。
