Overview of EMF Health Concerns

FMS clients often ask our opinion on the relationship of exposure to EMF and human health risk. FMS is not qualified to express a judgment or opinion regarding health risks; that is best left to competent scientific researchers. FMS is an engineering company, providing leading edge engineering solutions to EMF interference problems worldwide and makes no representation that reductions in EMF levels that result from our services will have any beneficial health result whatsoever. These issues are very complex, and there remains, after considerable investment in time and money, unanswered questions regarding EMF and human health risk.

The following statements and the content of this "Health Concern" section of FMS' website are offered as a general resource and FMS encourages interested or concerned parties, to conduct their own research and develop an informed understanding of the issues. There is a tremendous amount of research material available on the WEB and elsewhere regarding EMF health risk research (see Page "EMF Health Concern Resource Links" on this site)

Generally, there are few human health concerns associated with static or DC magnetic fields, except at extremely high levels, exceeding 20 Gauss or 20,000 mG. There are however, a number of "safety" related concerns from elevated DC magnetic field levels including possible interference or failure of cardiac pacemakers or other medical implant devices at DC levels in excess of 5,000 mG.

For the past 30 plus years, concerns about human health risk and exposure to AC magnetic fields from passing transmission power lines and other electrical sources such as a building electrical system, have been extensively researched with generally conflicting or inconsistent results. Research continues on AC magnetic field exposure and possible increased risk for increased risk of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig 's disease, and miscarriage. Presently in the US, the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS, 1999) Director has concluded that:

"The scientific evidence suggesting that [EMF] exposures pose any health risk is weak ...[but they] cannot be recognized at this time as entirely safe because of weak scientific evidence that exposures may pose a weak leukemia hazard."

For radio frequency (RF) EMF, there are long-standing issues such as possible human health risk from cell phone use, that continue to drive further investigation, as well as new concerns related to emerging wireless technologies. The virtual explosion of technology in wireless communications has opened new issues in worker exposure that are the subject of additional research. One of these issues is the concern related to RF radiation exposure of workers who build and maintain RF transmitting towers for both telecommunications and media broadcast stations.