SCENIHR 2015 — EU scientific committee opinion on EMF health effects

Finding

Updating the committee's 2009 opinions, it found no established adverse health effect of RF exposure below the reference levels, treated the epidemiological association between ELF magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia as unexplained rather than demonstrated to be causal, and found the evidence did not support EMF exposure as the cause of symptoms in people reporting sensitivity.

What it cannot establish

Adopted in January 2015, so it predates the NTP and Ramazzini animal studies and the 2024 WHO-commissioned review of human RF cancer studies; SCENIHR itself was later folded into a successor committee. It assesses the evidence base, not any individual product or installation.

Related records

• WHO-commissioned systematic review of RF exposure and cancer in humans (2024)

  A systematic review and meta-analysis of human observational studies found no association between mobile phone use and brain or head-and-neck cancers, including for long-term and heavy use.

  Research record

• Ahlbom et al. pooled analysis of magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia (2000)

  A pooled analysis of nine studies that produced the 0.3–0.4 µT figure still cited in every ELF policy discussion, reporting roughly twice the relative risk above that level.

  Research record

• Rubin et al. 2010 — updated systematic review of EHS provocation studies

  46 blind or double-blind provocation experiments with 1175 self-reported sensitive volunteers: no robust evidence that field exposure triggered their symptoms, and support for a nocebo mechanism instead.

  Research record

Sources

1. scenihr-2015 Opinion on potential health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF), adopted 27 January 2015 — Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR), European Commission, 2015. government, link checked 2026-08-12.