Medical/biological Study (experimental study)

Effects of Global Communication system radio-frequency fields on Well Being and Cognitive Functions of human subjects with and without subjective complaints. med./biol.

Aim of study (according to author)
To study general symptoms and cognitive functions with and without exposure to GSM and UMTS-like fields in subjects presenting with complaints subjectively attributed to GSM fields.
Background/further details:
This study is the so-called TNO study.
72 subjects (36 self-reported electrosensitive, 36 non-electrosensitive subjects) participated.

Endpoints

• cognitive/behavioral endpoints: cognitive performance
• others: well-being

Exposure
General category: mobile communication system, cell phone base station, GSM, UMTS, CDMA, TDMA

Field characteristics	Parameters
field 1: 945 MHz pulsed (PW) exposure duration: continuous for 20 min	electric field strength: 1 V/m peak value electric field strength: 0.71 V/m effective value SAR: 0.045 mW/kg max value (10 g) SAR: 0.000513 µW/kg average over mass (partial body)
field 2: 1840 MHz pulsed (PW) exposure duration: continuous for 20 min	electric field strength: 1 V/m peak value electric field strength: 0.71 V/m effective value SAR: 0.082 mW/kg max value (10 g) SAR: 0.000383 µW/kg average over mass (partial body)
field 3: 2140 MHz exposure duration: continuous for 20 min	electric field strength: 1 V/m peak value electric field strength: 1 V/m effective value SAR: 0.078 mW/kg max value (10 g) SAR: 0.064 mW/kg max value (10 g) (front illumination) SAR: 0.000316 µW/kg average over mass (partial body) SAR: 0.000327 µW/kg average over mass (partial body) (front illumination)

Exposed system:
human
whole body exposure

Methods
Endpoint/Measurement parameters/Methodology

• cognitive/behavioral endpoints: cognitive performance (cognitive tasks (reaction time task, dual tasking test, visual selective attention task, memory comparison test, filtering irrelevant information))
• hypersensitivity/subjective complaints: subjective complaints (questionnaire)
• others: well-being (questionnaire)

Main outcome of study (according to author)
A statistically significant relation between UMTS-like fields with a field strength of 1 V/m and an effect on the well-being was found (lower overall well-being). Further, a number of significant effects was revealed in the cognitive tasks.

(Study character: medical/biological study, experimental study, full/main study, double-blind study, cross-over study)

Study funded by

• Ministry of Economic Affairs, Netherlands
• Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Netherlands
• Ministry of Spatial Planning, Housing and the Environment, Netherlands

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