European project studies health effects of living in a “smart world”

The Radiation Programme at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona (Spain) is coordinating a new project on health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF), the most ambitious to date in Europe.

Life would be very different without new technologies and devices – including mobile phones, tablets, wifi – that make our everyday life easier. We now live in a smart world, surrounded by devices emitting electromagnetic fields (EMF) of different frequencies and levels, increasingly used for communication, surveillance at home, at work and in commercial and industrial settings. There remain, however, uncertainties about potential effects of EMF on health. Because of this, CREAL, an ISGlobal allied research centre, has set-up and is coordinating GERoNiMO, the most ambitious European project to date in this area. The goal of the project is to "close gaps in knowledge about health effects of EMF and, as appropriate, propose non-technological means to reduce exposures”, said Elisabeth Cardis, head of the Radiation programme at CREAL and coordinator of this project, in which data will be collected and analysed on exposure and health outcomes on thousands of children and adults. "The EU has identified a number of health outcomes that need to be studies and hypotheses about mechanisms that should be checked. Given the increasing sources of EMF in our environment, it is best to study these as soon as possible", said Cardis.

Original article published in ARA (26/01/2014):

Els efectes en la salut de viure dins d’un núvol d’informació – Mónica L. Ferrado