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Interagency Committee on the Health Effects of Non-Ionising Fields
Draft Notes from the Zoom Meeting held on 16 February 2023
Present
Richard Jaine (Manatū Haoura - Ministry of Health – Chair), Peter Berry (Electricity Engineer’s
Assoc.), Veerendra Bhim (Energy Safety Group, WorkSafe NZ), Brendon Hickey
(Telecommunication Carriers Forum), John Dockerty (University of Otago), Martin Gledhill (Te
Whatu Ora – Acting Secretary), Ken Karipidis (ARPANSA), Jeremy Logan (Radio Spectrum
Management), Andrea t’Mannetje (Massey University), Jesse Beatty-Ward (Ministry of
Education), Matthew Walker (Transpower New Zealand Ltd).
Apologies
Sally Gilbert (Te Whatu Ora), Isobel Stout (local government), Lucy Knowles (Ministry for the
Environment), Sarah McCarthy (Ministry for the Environment), Michael Tucker (Ministry for the
Environment), Sarah Loughran (ARPANSA), Adam Tommy (Kordia), Pip Parkin (Te Whatu Ora
– Heath New Zealand National Public Health Service), Helen van Mil (Te Whatu Ora – Heath
New Zealand National Public Health Service), Kimbal McHugo (Ministry of Education)
Welcome
Richard Jaine took the chair and welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Finalise the agenda
The agenda was confirmed.
Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the meeting held on 22 September 2022 were confirmed as an accurate record
of the meeting.
Matters arising
1. Sally Gilbert asked new members to send their contact details for inclusion at the end of
the meeting notes, and existing members to check that their details are up to date.
2. Al members wil send meeting reports to send any meeting reports to
[email address]..
New Zealand Information on ELF and RF
Local government
No update received.
under the Official Information Act 1982
National Public Health Service update
No update received.
Ministry of Education
Nothing new to report.
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Ministry for the Environment
Briefing notes covering Resource Management reform and transitioning existing national
direction to the National Policy Framework were circulated to the meeting.
Manatū Hauora
Nothing new to report.
Energy Safety Service/Worksafe
There have been no queries received.
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MOBI-Kids study
There has been no further reaction to the MOBI-Kids study
Update on Standards
Martin Gledhil noted that a working group has been set up by the joint Standards
Australia/Standards NZ TE-007 commit ee human exposure to electromagnetic fields to come
up with recommendations on how spatial averaging of exposures should be undertaken. Some
good progress has been made, but there is a lot of work stil to do. Ken Karipidis said that
ARPANSA wil soon be issuing an advisory note on the subject for RPS S-1.
Industry Update on Engineering and Technical Developments
Brendon Hickey reported that all three mobile operators have now chosen to sell their passive
tower assets to “TowerCos”. This wil probably result in more co-locations. RMA compliance
wil continue to be the responsibility of the operators.
Matthew Walker said there was nothing new from Transpower to report. Work to increase
capacity is accelerating.
Peter Berry commented that there had been few EMF queries to distribution companies. There
has been a large growth of interest in solar power generation. A recent survey found that 50%
of respondents thought that their next vehicle would be electric.
Australian Information on ELF and RF
Ken Karipidis highlighted the opening of ARPANSA’s new anechoic chamber, which wil allow
equipment to be calibrated at frequencies up to 40 GHz, and to carry out research at up to
100 GHz. A second call for research proposals has been made. Research at the higher
frequencies to be used in 5G networks is of particular interest.
ARPANSA staff are involved in several international projects, including the WHO Task Group
that wil review RF research, the systematic reviews to be reviewed by the Task group, and
ICNIRP. Two of the systematic reviews are close to publication but others are delayed.
The Talk To A Scientist programme has shown a steady decrease in queries between 2019
and 2022. Closer examination of the data showed that a large part of this was due to a sharp
drop in queries about 5G. Queries about other subjects had remained fairly steady.
under the Official Information Act 1982
International Information on ELF and RF
WHO International EMF Project Task Group
A WHO announcement of proposed members of the Task Group that wil prepare the RF
Environmental Health Criteria monograph on RF fields was circulated before the meeting.
Martin Gledhil commented that the expectation that the work would be finished by the end of
2023 was optimistic. Ken Karipidis noted that many of the people who might be expected to
be on the Task Group were not eligible as they were involved in the systematic reviews.
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International Reports (ELF)
John Dockerty gave an overview of the recent papers that he had selected. He prefaced his
review with a comment that much of the research now published appears to be less directly
relevant to human health.
• Emeksiz – Measured 1 Hz – 400 kHz electric and magnetic fields in a shopping mall and
claimed to find SARs of 0.763 and 0.39 W/kg. Martin Gledhil said he thought they must
have made a big error somewhere as that seemed highly unlikely. John Dockerty drew
attention to the somewhat emotional language in the abstract.
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• Vasta – Electromagnetic fields did not appear to affect onset age or symptom progression
in ALS patients.
• Teixido – A useful application of EMFs to improve safety near power tools.
• Dong – Theoretical analysis of EMFs in an electric vehicle showed passenger exposures
were all below recommended limits.
• Zagar – 0.5% of children and adolescents in Slovenia are exposed to magnetic fields from
transmission lines >0.1 µT. Their cancer risk does not differ from others of the same age.
• Ohtani – high intensity, intermittent IF magnetic fields had no genotoxic effect on somatic
or germ cells.
• Chen – Strong 50 Hz magnetic fields enhanced the infection ability of Magnaporthe oryzae.
John said he had not been able to access the full paper and do a quality analysis.
• Gholamian-Hamadan – 50 Hz magnetic fields affected some immune system cells.
However, John said he had not been able to access the full paper and assess the study
quality and relevance.
• Pagliaccio - meta-analysis of experimental studies on animals exposed to MRI fields
showed no prenatal risks.
• Pophof – More research is needed on the effects of EMFs of all frequencies on flora and
fauna.
• Levitt - an opinion piece stating that wildlife may not have sufficient protection from EMFs.
• Chou – An overview of controversies on EMF safety and why they might exist.
• Bainbridge – Staff exposures to EMFs from MRI equipment, even at levels above limit
values, do not appear to have deleterious long term effects.
• Leszczynski – Opinion piece advocating more research on EHS.
• Zastko – Reports window effects of ELF magnetic fields on umbilical cord blood
lymphocytes. Martin commented that window effects (in frequency and amplitude) were
often reported in earlier days of bioelectromagnetics research, and wondered whether they
just reflected random variability of results.
• Belpomme – A somewhat long-winded discussion of EHS that contains erroneous
analogies.
International Reports (RF)
• SSM annual report – Concludes that no new causal relationships between EMF exposure
and health risk have been established. Ken commented how the SSM reports take a very
systematic approach to their work, both in selection of literature and their appraisal of it.
• ICBE-EMF – Very selective in choice of literature cited so as to support their opinions.
• Hinrikus – Builds on previous work by the same author that “coherent” RF fields can have
effects at very low exposures, and to protect against these exposures should be limited to
under the Official Information Act 1982
levels currently found in the environment. Martin noted that the proposed interaction
mechanism was not supported by other reviews of possible mechanisms.
• de Vocht – Analysis of reviews, commentaries and opinion pieces on 5G and the nature of
the authors (industry, activist or independent). Noted that “activist” authors were much less
likely to consider study quality when drawing conclusions.
• Lin – Opinion piece wide open to debate.
• Traini – Found that over a 10 year period there was a high chance that people believing
themselves to be EHS would change their minds, and vice-versa, suggesting that EHS is a
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transient condition.
• Iakovidis – Data from publicly available RF monitoring networks shows low exposures that
have not changed significantly over time.
• Ramirez-Vazquez – Most studies found low personal RF exposures, but those looking
specifically at levels near base stations found much higher values.
• Pinto – Careful and thorough review of in vivo studies of cancer, finding low or inadequate
evidence for an effect of RF fields. Useful discussion of the NTP and Falcioni studies.
• Chartres – Looks at how scientific evidence can be used to produce more timely information
about potential health risks.
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• Bouisset – Did not find an effect of strong ELF fields on vestibular function.
• Pawelek – Reviewing evidence of effects of static and alternating fields on crops. Ken
commented that the ARPANSA work on RF fields and flora/fauna was almost complete.
Other business
There was no other business
Conclusions
The Committee noted the reports received and advised that there was nothing in the research
considered at the meeting that would lead the Commit ee to consider that any change in current
policy was required.
Next meeting
The next Commit ee meeting is proposed for Thursday 21 September 2023 at 1 pm.
Commit ee members expressed interest in having a face-to-face meeting.
Martin Gledhil
Acting Secretary
16 February 2023
under the Official Information Act 1982
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Document Outline
