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Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU

In the European Union, health surveillance (HS) of electromagnetic fields (EMF)-exposed workers is mandatory according to the Directive 2013/35/EU, aimed at the prevention of known direct biophysical effects and indirect EMF’s effects. Long-term effects are not addressed in the Directive as the evid...

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Autores principales: Modenese, Alberto, Gobba, Fabriziomaria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916781/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33579004
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041730
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author Modenese, Alberto
Gobba, Fabriziomaria
author_facet Modenese, Alberto
Gobba, Fabriziomaria
author_sort Modenese, Alberto
collection PubMed
description In the European Union, health surveillance (HS) of electromagnetic fields (EMF)-exposed workers is mandatory according to the Directive 2013/35/EU, aimed at the prevention of known direct biophysical effects and indirect EMF’s effects. Long-term effects are not addressed in the Directive as the evidence of a causal relationship is considered inadequate. Objectives of HS are the prevention or early detection of EMF adverse effects, but scant evidence is hitherto available on the specific procedures. A first issue is that no specific laboratory tests or medical investigations have been demonstrated as useful for exposure monitoring and/or prevention of the effects. Another problem is the existence of workers at particular risk (WPR), i.e., subjects with specific conditions inducing an increased susceptibility to the EMF-related risk (e.g., workers with active medical devices or other conditions); exposures within the occupational exposure limit values (ELVs) are usually adequately protective against EMF’s effects, but lower exposures can possibly induce a health risk in WPR. Consequently, the HS of EMF-exposed workers according to the EU Directive should be aimed at the early detection and monitoring of the recognized adverse effects, as well as an early identification of WPR for the adoption of adequate preventive measures.
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spelling pubmed-79167812021-03-01 Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU Modenese, Alberto Gobba, Fabriziomaria Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In the European Union, health surveillance (HS) of electromagnetic fields (EMF)-exposed workers is mandatory according to the Directive 2013/35/EU, aimed at the prevention of known direct biophysical effects and indirect EMF’s effects. Long-term effects are not addressed in the Directive as the evidence of a causal relationship is considered inadequate. Objectives of HS are the prevention or early detection of EMF adverse effects, but scant evidence is hitherto available on the specific procedures. A first issue is that no specific laboratory tests or medical investigations have been demonstrated as useful for exposure monitoring and/or prevention of the effects. Another problem is the existence of workers at particular risk (WPR), i.e., subjects with specific conditions inducing an increased susceptibility to the EMF-related risk (e.g., workers with active medical devices or other conditions); exposures within the occupational exposure limit values (ELVs) are usually adequately protective against EMF’s effects, but lower exposures can possibly induce a health risk in WPR. Consequently, the HS of EMF-exposed workers according to the EU Directive should be aimed at the early detection and monitoring of the recognized adverse effects, as well as an early identification of WPR for the adoption of adequate preventive measures. MDPI 2021-02-10 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7916781/ /pubmed/33579004 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041730 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Modenese, Alberto
Gobba, Fabriziomaria
Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title_full Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title_fullStr Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title_full_unstemmed Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title_short Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Health Surveillance according to the European Directive 2013/35/EU
title_sort occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and health surveillance according to the european directive 2013/35/eu
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916781/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33579004
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041730
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