Opinion on the need of a revision of the annexes in the Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC and Directive 2013/35/EU, in view of the latest scientific evidence available with regard to radiofrequency (100kHz - 300GHz)
date: 14/06/2023
Today, the European Commission and its Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) published its final Opinion on the need of a revision of the annexes in the Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC and Directive 2013/35/EU, in view of the latest scientific evidence available with regard to radiofrequency (100kHz - 300GHz).
The Opinion calls for a revision based on new technical data and emerging applications that have become available. No moderate or strong evidence could identify potential adverse health effects at exposure levels below the current recommendation, as noted below.
Based on the available scientific evidence, the SCHEER:
- has considered various science-based resources after publication of the SCENIHR Opinion on potential health effects of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) in 2015;
- notes that there is uncertain weight of evidence for interaction mechanisms in in vitro studies, involving oxidative balance, genetic and epigenetic effects and calcium signalling that can result in biological effects;
- could not identify moderate or strong level of evidence for adverse health effects resulting from chronic or acute RF EMF exposure from existing technology at levels below the limits set in the annexes of Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC and Directive 2013/35/EU;
- has noted the technical progress achieved since the ICNIRP (1998) exposure guidelines in the areas of computational and experimental exposure assessment and dosimetry, allowing for a more accurate evaluation of human exposure;
- has also noted that new and emerging wireless applications using RF EMF tend to use higher frequencies and lower emitted power in closer vicinity to the human body. However, there are situations where beam focusing or intense pulsed radiation can increase exposure for short times.
The SCHEER acknowledges that the latest (2020) ICNIRP exposure guidelines introduce new dosimetric quantities to protect humans more effectively from emerging technological applications of RF EMF. Therefore, the SCHEER advises positively on the need of a technical revision of the annexes in Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC and Directive 2013/35/EU with regard to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz).