Mobile phones, tablets and other wireless devices are more ubiquitous than ever, and as their use increases, so do concerns over the health impacts of the radiofrequency fields they emit. Health Canada’s Safety Code 6 sets out the guidelines for human exposure to such fields based on the best available science. In an effort to harmonize with international standards Health Canada has reviewed the most recent scientific evidence and proposed a series of revisions to the Code in 2013. Health Canada then asked the Royal Society of Canada to convene an expert panel to answer the following questions:

  • Do the proposed changes to the Code provide adequate protection from established adverse health effects?

  • Are other potential health impacts that should be considered?

  • Are there additional precautionary measures that should be recommended?

The Science Media Centre of Canada hosted a webinar March 31, 2014, where you can hear about the findings directly from the report’s authors:

Speakers:

David Layzell is the Secretary of Expert Panels for the Royal Society of Canada. He will describe the charge to the panel and the production of the report.

Paul Demers, Director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Cancer Care Ontario; Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto; Scientific Director of CAREX Canada, a workplace and environmental carcinogen surveillance program, based at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Demers is an epidemiologist and an expert on the impact of occupational and environmental exposures on cancer. Dr. Demers was Chair of the Expert Panel.

Richard Findlay, EMF Comp, United Kingdom. Dr. Findlay is a physicist with over 25 years of experience. Dr. Findlay has previously worked for the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in the UK. In this capacity he carried out extensive work in the field of computational electromagnetics and gave advice relating to the safety of electromagnetic fields. Dr. Findlay was a member of the Expert Panel.

Kenneth Foster, Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Foster has been engaged in studies on the interaction of nonionizing radiation and biological systems, with more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals on topics including biophysical mechanisms of interaction, electrical properties of biological materials, and medical applications and possible human health effects of radiofrequency (RF) fields. Dr. Foster was a member of the Expert Panel.

Download the audio recording (mp3) and visual presentation of the webinar.