Health effects of low level ELF and RF/MW radiation

The effect of low level electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is becoming a potential health issue to the public, particularly related to the extremely low frequency (ELF) and radiofrequency/microwave (RF/MW) radiation which includes people who living at the vicinity of the EMR sources, office workers, engineers and technicians and other members of the publics. The sources of EMR may originated from power transmission line, power generator, communication base station and antenna tower, electrical equipment, computer, microwave oven and other consumer products. Recent years, studies elsewhere have focused on the adverse effect of the low level EMR that is non-thermal biological effect which have not been considered in the guidelines and limit of maximum exposures standard. Some finding of the studies reported to be associated with ELF and RF/MW include childhood leukemia, brain tumors, genotoxic effects, neurological effects and neuro degenerative diseases, immune system deregulation, allergic and inflammatory responses, breast cancer, miscarriages and some cardiovascular effects. The aim of this paper is to highlight some of the recent finding of the biological effects of low level ELF and RF/MW radiation. Results obtains were based on the epidemiological and technical studies of the group of people, animal and laboratory experiments. However, scientific data of low level radiation studies were still remain controversial, the major problems were due to long latency period (>10 years), change of experiment protocol, EMR frequencies used and nature of exposure regimes which finally lead to the inconsistent findings or finding could not be replicated. (Author)