Background

During the years 1994 - 2003, Finnish universities and research institutes have carried out three national research programmes to address the public concerns and to support the ongoing international efforts to assess possible health effects of RF electromagnetic fields.

The present research programme Health Risk Assessment of Mobile Communications (HERMO), will continue this unique series of national research programmes. The three-year HERMO project was started in June 2004. The total budget planned for the three years is about 1.5 million €

The HERMO research programme was planned based on the research needs listed in the WHO Research Agenda and review of recent literature. See: 2003 Research Agenda for Radio Frequency Fields of the World Health Organisation

The increasing use of mobile phone has radically increased human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields. At present, more than 80 % of the Finnish population have a mobile phone. Although the exposure levels are low, the high number of users and some provocative but inconclusive scientific results have raised concerns about possible adverse health effects of RF electromagnetic field exposure from mobile phone and from the base stations of mobile communications networks.

The third generation mobile communication systems will extend the possibilities to use wireless communication for fax, e-mail, internet access etc. This means that the use of mobile communication technologies will continue to increase.

There is a need of research on the possible adverse health effects associated with electromagnetic fields from wireless devices. While the previous Finnish research programmes and other recent studies have produced a lot of useful data for risk assessment of RF electromagnetic fields from mobile phone systems, there are still many open questions.