Subjective complaints of people living near mobile phone base stations in Poland

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of our study was to assess the health conditions and subjective symptoms of the inhabitants living in the base stations vicinity and to analyse the relationship between the complaints and level of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). Materials and Methods: Our study was performed in housing estates located in five regions of Łódź. The electric field measurements were performed in the buildings located closest to the azimuth of the antennas. Respondents were selected by trained interviewers using an uniform procedure. The number of the households to be examined was set at a minimum of 420. The questionnaire contained: demographic data, occupational and environmental exposure to EMF, health condition, subjective complaints. Results were adjusted for confounders (age, gender, EMF at the workplace and EMF emitted by household equipment) using multiple regression model. Results: 181 men and 319 women from 500 households were examined. Electric field above 0.8 V/m was recorded in 12% of flats. There was no significant correlation between electric field strength and the distance of examined flats from the base stations. To make possible comparison with relevant literature, we analysed also the frequency of the reported symptoms vs. the distance. Headache was declared by 57% people, most frequently (36.4%) living 100-150 m away from the base station compared to people living at longer distances (p = 0.013). 24.4% subjects, mostly living at a distance above 150 m, declared impaired memory. Difference was statistically significant in comparison with people living at other distances (p = 0.004). Conclusions: The explanation why we did not find any correlation between the electric field strength and frequency of subjective symptoms but found a correlation between subjective symptoms and distance from base station needs further studies. Maybe new metrics of exposure assessment should be adopted for this purpose.

Awareness and Self-Reported Health Hazards of Electromagnetic Waves from Mobile Phone Towers in Dhaka, Bangladesh: A Pilot Study

“…Exposure was associated with discomfort, irritability, appetite loss, fatigue, headache, difficulties concentrating, and sleep disturbance. Previous studies have reported that the most exposed people had a higher incidence of fatigue, irritability, headaches, nausea, loss of appetite, sleeping disorders, depression, discomfort, difficulties concentrating, memory loss, visual disorders, dizziness, and cardiovascular problems that are almost similar with our findings [22][23][24][25][26]. However, most of these population based studies did not show statistically significant association of the physical symptoms reported with exposure to BTS and the adverse effects might be due to nocebo effect.…”

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis in radio and TV broadcasting stations workers

“…Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the mechanism of biological activity of EMF emitted by transmitting antennas of base stations and mobile TV transmitters may be similar. This could explain subjective symptoms from the central nervous system (such as headache and dizziness) reported by the residents of areas surrounding base stations, observed by different authors [23,24,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] where EMF with similar values prevail.…”

“…However, the nature of most of the reported subjective symptoms implies their association with impaired neurovegetative regulation of the cardiovascular function [23,24]. In the experimental study by Mann and Roschke, the HRV analysis did not reveal any pathologies in the subjects exposed to pulse-modulated 900 MHz EMF [25].…”

Exposição a radiações eletromagnéticas não ionizantes da telefonia celular e sintomas psiquiátricos

“…Navarro et al 8 indicated an association between exposure and depressive symptoms in the population 150m from the mobile phone base stations. Likewise, Bortkievicz et al 9 , Abdel-Rassoul et al 10 , and Hutter et al 30 found more neurobehavioral effects in populations living near the mobile phone base stations when compared to those living more than 300m or 400m from the mobile phone base stations. Eger et al 16 found that five years or more after installation and operation of the mobile phone base stations, the risk of developing cancer tripled for residents within less than 400m from the source, the main beam of which touched the ground at a horizontal distance of 350m.…”

“…Decreased libido was the most common complaint in men. According to Navarro et al 8 and Bortkiewicz et al 9 , individuals living close to the mobile phone base stations reported circulatory problems, sleep disorders, irritability, depression, blurred vision, and difficulties in concentrating. Meanwhile, Abdel-Rassoul et al 10 suggested a relationship between living near a mobile phone bases station and neurobehavioral problems like depressive tendency, tremors, dizziness, headache, sleep disorders, and visual disorders, among others.…”