Children’s Personal Exposure Measurements to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields in Italy

Ilaria Liorni, Marta Parazzini, Benjamin Struchen, Serena Fiocchi, Martin Röösli and Paolo Ravazzani
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Ilaria Liorni: CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni IEIIT, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, Milano 20133, Italy
Marta Parazzini: CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni IEIIT, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, Milano 20133, Italy
Benjamin Struchen: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel 4002, Switzerland
Serena Fiocchi: CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni IEIIT, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, Milano 20133, Italy
Martin Röösli: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel 4002, Switzerland
Paolo Ravazzani: CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni IEIIT, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, Milano 20133, Italy

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs) exposure is still a topic of concern due to their possible impact on children’s health. Although epidemiological studies claimed an evidence of a possible association between ELF-MF above 0.4 ?T and childhood leukemia, biological mechanisms able to support a causal relationship between ELF-MF and this disease were not found yet. To provide further knowledge about children’s ELF-MF exposure correlated to children’s daily activities, a measurement study was conducted in Milan (Italy). Eighty-six children were recruited, 52 of whom were specifically chosen with respect to the distance to power lines and built-in transformers to oversample potentially highly exposed children. Personal and bedroom measurements were performed for each child in two different seasons. The major outcomes of this study are: (1) median values over 24-h personal and bedroom measurements were <3 ?T established by the Italian law as the quality target; (2) geometric mean values over 24-h bedroom measurements were mostly <0.4 ?T; (3) seasonal variations did not significantly influence personal and bedroom measurements; (4) the highest average MF levels were mostly found at home during the day and outdoors; (5) no significant differences were found in the median and geometric mean values between personal and bedroom measurements, but were found in the arithmetic mean.

Keywords: extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF); personal measurement; children; exposure assessment; power line; transformer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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