Increased risk of cancer and heart diseases due to the exposure to the radar EMF among the population of Potenza Picena, Italy (1986-91)
Keywords:
Electromagnetic fields, radar, epidemiology, cancer risk, heart attack risk, rate ratio, odds ratioAbstract
Background and aim of the work: This study investigates the possible association between the prevalence of some chronic and lethal diseases in the population and the exposure to the EMF radiation of the military radar ARGOS 10, that had been located since 1970 until 1998 in the hamlet of Casette Antonelli, Potenza Picena (MC), Italy. Methods: Five types of diseases were researched in the hospital admissions between 1986 and 1991: cancer, heart attacks and strokes, miscarriages, congenital malformations and severe behavioral disorders. The search for such diseases was performed among 756 hospital admissions, 355 of which were for cancer and 189 for heart attack and stroke. For each observed case the address of residence was identified and the corresponding level of exposure to the radar EMF radiation was evaluated, in order to collect a large sample of data suitable to a statistical analysis based on risk indices. Results: The exposure to the radar radiofrequency emissions can increase the risk of cancer and heart diseases. Conclusions: For all the pathologies considered, the observed rate results always higher in exposed groups, since both the indices RR and OR are higher than one. In particular, the risk of cancer results to be highly significant in both patterns of comparison. For the risk of heart attack the comparison between exposed and fully exposed people is highly significant, being consistent with previous studies concluding that chronic RF exposure can bring about increased cardiovascular risk (Bortkiewicz A et al, 1995, 1996; Vangelova K et al, 2006).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
OPEN ACCESS
All the articles of the European Journal of Oncology and Environmental Health are published with open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that the author(s) retain copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article.
The articles in the previous edition of the Journal (European Journal of Oncology) are made available online with open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Upon submission, author(s) grant the Journal the license to publish their original unpublished work within one year, and the non exclusive right to display, store, copy and reuse the content. The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license enables anyone to use the publication freely, given appropriate attribution to the author(s) and citing the Journal as the original publisher. The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license does not apply to third-party materials that display a copyright notice to prohibit copying. Unless the third-party content is also subject to a CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license, or an equally permissive license, the author(s) must comply with any third-party copyright notices.