Potential adverse effects of radiations on children's health

Action BM0704's main objectives are to:

• Share knowledge and information on emerging EMF (electromagnetic field) technologies, on their operating characteristics and novel ways and applications in which they are used.
• Investigate novel emissions and operating characteristics that might result and what impact these would have on the device-specific and overall EMF exposure of people.
• Address possible health effects and the scientific evidence for health concerns if any.
• Investigate how such concerns should be addressed through the use of evidence-based information.
• Assess and further develop tools that are effective in communicating and managing such risks and perceived risks.
• Share knowledge of methods and tools for assessing public risk perception of emerging EMF technologies.

COST Action BM0704 is delighted to have as co-organisers of the Conference the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Bioelectromagnetics Association (EBEA) and the European Society for Skin Cancer Prevention (EUROSKIN). The Conference will be hosted by the Slovenian Institute of Non-Ionizing Radiation (INIS) at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The programme for the Conference includes invited presentations from experts, proffered papers and posters covering all of the disciplines included in the Action's work programme, such as biology and medicine, epidemiology and physics. The programme also lists topics such as engineering and risk management and, in addition to low frequency and radiofrequency EMFs, optical radiations including ultraviolet radiation feature prominently. Debates that promise to be particularly interesting are the ones on contrasts between uncertainties in the scientific evidence for potential adverse effects on children's health from these different radiations and fields and management of risks. The proceedings of the Conference will be published in the journal 'Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology'.