Estimated all-day and evening whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic fields doses, and sleep in preadolescents

• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112291
• Publication Date: 2021-10-29T14:47:14Z
• Authors: Alba Cabré-Riera; Luuk van Wel; Ilaria Liorni; M. Elisabeth Koop...; Liher Imaz; Jesús Ibarluzea; Anke Huss; Joe Wiart; Roel Vermeulen; Wout Joseph; Myles Capstick; Martine Vrijheid; Elisabeth Cardis; Martin Röösli; Marloes Eeftens; Arno Thielens; Henning Tiemeier; Mònica Guxens
• Keywords: electromagnetic fields; Technology and Engineering; SYMPTOMS; DEVICES; Adolescent; Wireless technology; Radio Waves; Biochemistry; PHONE BASE STATIONS; 03 medical and health sciences; Electromagnetic Fields; 0302 clinical medicine; telecommunications; Environmental Science(all); cell phone use; QUALITY; Humans; EXPOSURE; sleep; Child; ADOLESCENT SLEEP; General Environmental Science; TECHNOLOGY USE; Radio waves; Brain; Electromagnetic fields; Environmental Exposure; radio waves; 3. Good health; MEDIA USE; adolescent; technology; Wireless; Telecommunications; wireless technology; UPDATE; RF-EMF; Sleep; Cell phone use; Cell Phone

To investigate the association of estimated all-day and evening whole-brain radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) doses with sleep disturbances and objective sleep measures in preadolescents.We included preadolescents aged 9-12 years from two population-based birth cohorts, the Dutch Generation R Study (n = 974) and the Spanish INfancia y Medio Ambiente Project (n = 868). All-day and evening overall whole-brain RF-EMF doses (mJ/kg/day) were estimated for several RF-EMF sources including mobile and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) phone calls (named phone calls), other mobile phone uses, tablet use, laptop use (named screen activities), and far-field sources. We also estimated all-day and evening whole-brain RF-EMF doses in these three groups separately (i.e. phone calls, screen activities, and far-field). The Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children was completed by mothers to assess sleep disturbances. Wrist accelerometers together with sleep diaries were used to measure sleep characteristics objectively for 7 consecutive days.All-day whole-brain RF-EMF doses were not associated with self-reported sleep disturbances and objective sleep measures. Regarding evening doses, preadolescents with high evening whole-brain RF-EMF dose from phone calls had a shorter total sleep time compared to preadolescents with zero evening whole-brain RF-EMF dose from phone calls [-11.9 min (95%CI -21.2; -2.5)].Our findings suggest the evening as a potentially relevant window of RF-EMF exposure for sleep. However, we cannot exclude that observed associations are due to the activities or reasons motivating the phone calls rather than the RF-EMF exposure itself or due to chance finding.