A critical appraisal of the WHO 2024 systematic review of the effects of RF-EMF exposure on tinnitus, migraine/headache, and non-specific symptoms

IF 3 4区医学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Reviews on Environmental Health Pub Date : 2024-07-12 DOI:10.1515/reveh-2024-0069

John W. Frank, Ronald L. Melnick, Joel M. Moskowitz

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Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012 initiated an expert consultation about research on the health effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) for a WHO monograph that was last updated in 1993. The project was abandoned over concerns about the quality of the commissioned review papers. The WHO restarted the project in 2019 by commissioning 10 systematic reviews (SRs) of the research on RF-EMF exposure and adverse biological and health outcomes in laboratory animals, cell cultures, and human populations. The second of these SRs, published in 2024, addresses human observational studies of RF-EMF exposure and non-specific symptoms, including tinnitus, migraine/headache, and sleep disturbance. The present commentary is a critical appraisal of the scientific quality of this SR (SR7) employing criteria developed by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. Based upon our review, we call for a retraction of SR7 and an impartial investigation by unconflicted experts of the currently available evidence and future research priorities.

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对世界卫生组织 2024 年关于暴露于射频-电磁场对耳鸣、偏头痛/头痛和非特异性症状的影响的系统综述进行批判性评估

世界卫生组织（WHO）于 2012 年启动了一项专家咨询，内容是关于射频电磁场（RF-EMF）对健康影响的研究，WHO 专著的上一次更新是在 1993 年。由于担心委托审查论文的质量，该项目被放弃。世卫组织于 2019 年重启该项目，委托对实验室动物、细胞培养物和人类群体中射频电磁场暴露与不良生物学和健康结果的研究进行 10 次系统性审查（SR）。其中第二份系统综述于 2024 年发表，涉及射频-电磁场暴露与非特异性症状（包括耳鸣、偏头痛/头痛和睡眠障碍）的人类观察性研究。本评论采用牛津循证医学中心（Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine）制定的标准，对该 SR（SR7）的科学质量进行了严格评估。根据我们的评论，我们呼吁撤回 SR7，并由无异议专家对现有证据和未来研究重点进行公正调查。

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来源期刊

Reviews on Environmental Health Social Sciences-Health (social science)

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

2.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Reviews on Environmental Health (REVEH) is an international peer-reviewed journal that aims to fill the need for publication of review articles on hot topics in the field of environmental health. Reviews on Environmental Health aims to be an inspiring forum for scientists, environmentalists, physicians, engineers, and students who are concerned with aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physiological and psychosociological interactions between man and physical, chemical, biological, and social factors in the environment. Reviews on Environmental Health is an important niche served by no other journal, that’s being a site where thoughtful reviews can be published on a variety of subjects related to both health and environment. One challenge is to bridge the research on environmental causes of disease with the clinical practice of medicine. Reviews on Environmental Health is a source of integrated information on environment and health subjects that will be of value to the broad scientific community, whether students, junior and senior professionals, or clinicians.