Electromagnetic hypersensitivity refers to health effects attributed to electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure These symptoms have been officially named “idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields” (IEI-EMF) by the World Health Organization Because of the growing use of cell phones IEI-EMF has become a global public health concern A nationwide telephone survey in 2007 in Taiwan showed that the prevalence rate of IEI-EMF was 13 3% which is higher than rates in previous studies We conducted a survey using the same method and found that the rate had declined to 4 6% in 2012 We also found a declining global prevalence in our literature review Because media reports may encourage readers to attribute their symptoms to EMF this change might be related to media coverage We searched for articles indexed in the largest newspaper database in Taiwan to evaluate the association between media coverage and the prevalence of IEI-EMF The number of newspaper articles related to EMF and IEI-EMF increased from 2005 to 2007 and then has been decreasing until 2012 which is compatible with the change in the prevalence of IEI-EMF We also assessed the effects of other potential affecting factors such as the density of mobile phone base stations the number of mobile phone users total mobile phone calling time and the number of text messages sent through mobile phones We found that all of these potential factors increased in Taiwan from 2007 to 2012 The result of an environmental EMF exposure study cannot be used to explain the condition of individual exposure Therefore we conducted a double-blind provocation study to test whether EMF exposure affects blood pressure (BP) and heart rate variation (HRV) and to verify whether IEI-EMF sufferers are able to accurately discriminate between sham and real EMF exposures 58 self-reported IEI-EMF sufferers and 92 controls were exposed to base station-like signal in a double-blind and randomized experimental procedure The BP and HRV of individuals in both groups remained unaffected by EMF exposure Neither the IEI-EMF group nor controls could accurately identify the provocation status of their sessions Our study indicated that short-term mobile phone signal exposure does not affect BP and HRV and that none of the participants could accurately detect EMF exposure In conclusion the results of our study support the hypotheses that risk perception of EMF might be affected by media reports and that exposure to short-term low intensity base station-like EMF does not affect BP and HRV
Date of Award | 2018 May 7 |
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Original language | English |
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Supervisor | How-Ran Guo (Supervisor) |
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Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF): From variations in worldwide prevalence to effects of individual EMF exposure
佰璋, 黃. (Author). 2018 May 7
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis