Radiofrequency Radiation in Swedish Schools with Wi-Fi

by | Jul 15, 2019 | 2017, EMF's, Infant and Children's Health

Written by Joyce Smith, BS This study clarifies why children should be exposed to as low RF radiation as possible at school and at home and suggests that wired connections for both the Internet and telephone communications should be preferred to minimize children’s exposure to wireless radiation.

The potential vulnerability of children to radio frequency (RF) fields is of great concern. Their developing nervous systems are potentially more susceptible to RF emissions and their brain tissue more conductive, thus making RF penetration greater relative to head size. 1  Furthermore, they will have a longer lifetime of RF radiation exposure than adults. 1 Information and communication technology (ICT), which includes communication technologies such as the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums is an asset to school education; however, its implications for children’s health are not yet fully understood. 2  High use of ICT among young adults has increased the risk for depression, sleep problems and stress. 3 A study in Sweden found that 80% of 16-year old participants spend 3 hours of free screen time per day (35% spent 5 or more hours per day) 4 while in the U.S., college students spend almost 9 hours per day on their cell phones. 5  Both in Sweden and in many other countries, the use of wireless communication systems is increasing significantly in schools. The concern is with the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) these systems emit when used. The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, 6 associated with wireless phone use. Wired internet connections are a safer alternative.

This study’s objective 7 was to assess radiofrequency (RF) emissions in a Swedish classroom by measuring the teachers’ RF exposure in order to approximate the children’s exposure and to identify the main sources of the exposure in schools equipped with wireless infrastructure. The authors wanted to compare their results to Sweden’s reference values as well as to countries with stricter safety limits and to the Bioinitiative Group’s suggested safety level. Furthermore, they hoped to compare their exposimetric study result to exposimetric study results in other countries and hopefully to formulate strategies for RF radiation risk management in schools.

A total of 18 teachers (in grades 7-12) carried a body-borne exposimeter (EME-Spy 200) for 6-31 hours  during 1-4  working school days, which provided a total of 230,100 readings for assessment and corresponded to 255 hours of RF radiation measurements. The mean exposure to RF radiation ranged from 1.1 to 66.1 μW/m2. The highest mean level, 396.6 μW/m2, occurred during 5 minutes of a lesson when the teacher let the students stream and watch YouTube videos. The highest peaks (up to 82,857 μW/m2) came from mobile phones uplink.

These measurements are in line with recent exposure studies in schools in other countries. The exposure levels varied between the different Wi-Fi systems, and whether students were allowed to use their own smartphones on the school’s Wi-Fi network or whether they were connected to GSM/3G/4G base stations outside the school. An access point over the teacher’s head gave higher exposure compared to a school which had a wired Internet connection for the teacher in the classroom. All values were far below the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection’s reference values, but most mean levels measured were above the precautionary target level of 3–6 μW/m2 as proposed by the Bioinitiative Report.

The authors believe that the scientific research to date offers no guarantees for safety from RF radiation; therefore, children should be exposed to as low RF radiation as possible both in school and at home. Wired connection for both the Internet and telephone communications should be preferred to minimize exposure to the wireless radiation. Schools should prefer wired network connections, allow laptop tablets and mobile phone usage only in flight mode and deactivate WI-Fi access points when internet is not needed for learning purposes.

The above study results are based on limited numbers of participants and should be repeated with larger numbers. The authors recommend that results should be interpreted with caution.

Source: Hedendahl, Lena K., Michael Carlberg, Tarmo Koppel, and Lennart Hardell. “Measurements of radiofrequency radiation with a Body-Borne exposimeter in swedish schools with Wi-Fi.” Frontiers in public health 5 (2017): 279.

Copyright © 2017 Hedendahl, Carlberg, Koppel and Hardell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted July 15, 2019.

Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from  the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.

References:

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  4. Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet. 2018.
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  6. Cancer IAfRo. IARC classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans. Press release. 2011(208).
  7. Hedendahl LK, Carlberg M, Koppel T, Hardell L. Measurements of radiofrequency radiation with a Body-Borne exposimeter in swedish schools with Wi-Fi. Frontiers in public health. 2017;5:279.