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

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112291Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • We estimated whole-brain RF-EMF doses (mJ/kg/day) for several RF-EMF sources.

  • We estimated all-day and evening whole-brain RF-EMF doses.

  • We assessed subjective and objective sleep measures in preadolescents.

  • No association between all-day whole-brain RF-EMF doses and sleep.

  • Evening whole-brain RF-EMF dose from phone calls related to shorter total sleep time.

Abstract

Objective

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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)].

Conclusions

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.

Keywords

Adolescent
Telecommunications
Cell phone use
Sleep
Wireless technology
Electromagnetic fields
Radio waves

Abbreviations

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields
RF-EMF

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