Perspective on electromagnetic fields as a potential genotoxic risk where are we today

Several thousand scientific articles published over the past twenty years relate to the question of whether electromagnetic fields, EMF, somehow can be involved in the induction or promotion of genotoxic effects including cancer. In a smaller number of these articles it has been stated that EMF may be the cause of such dangers. It is therefore important to review the present knowledge and also to clarify certain scientific aspects. To the general public, the word 'radiation' in many cases is wrongly perceived as threatening. It is therefore important to note that ionizing radiation such as X-rays and gamma radiation gives rise to completely different physical and biological effects and carry a much higher energy per 'photon' than EMF. What follows is thus a summary of an analysis according to the so-called Hill's criteria, a review of some of the previous research that has been made for low frequency EMF (50/60 Hz) including some theoretical and experimental aspects of EMF. Finally a remark is made regarding 'possible risks'. (orig.)