Public health indicators for the EU: the joint action for ECHIM (European Community Health Indicators & Monitoring).

Background: Public health policies aim to improve and maintain the health of citizens. Relevant data and indicators are needed for a health policy that is based on factual information. After 14 years of work (1998-2012), the multi-phase action on European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) has created a health monitoring and reporting system.

Health indicators in Europe: availability and data needs.

Background: The European Union (EU) lacks adequate capacity for public health monitoring. The creation of a stable European Health Information System would help Member States to carry out evidence-based health policy. Such a system would also benefit EU health priorities by providing European wide comparable information.

Space efficient system for whole-body exposure of unrestrained rats to 900 MHz electromagnetic fields.

The aim of this study was to design, implement and analyze a space-efficient setup for the whole-body exposure of unrestrained Wistar rats to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields at 900 MHz. The setup was used for 2 years in a cocarcinogenesis study and part of it for 5 weeks in a central nervous system (CNS) study. Up to 216 rats could be placed in separate cages in nine different exposure chambers on three racks requiring only 9 m2 of floor area (24 rats per m2).

Measured and computed induced body currents in front of an experimental RF dielectric heater.

Operators of industrial high-frequency dielectric heaters are exposed to electromagnetic fields that are high enough to significantly increase body temperature. The assessment of exposure based on the measurement of external field strengths is, however, inaccurate due to the non-uniformity of the fields. This paper presents an exposure assessment method based on the measurement of the current induced by the external electric field in the body of the operator.

Numerical assessment of induced ELF currents in the human head due to the battery current of a digital mobile phone.

In this study, the extremely low frequency (ELF) fields induced in the human head by the battery currents of a mobile phone are considered. The magnetic field induced by the phone was measured, and this data was used to calculate the resulting currents induced in the human head and brain. Both the finite element method (FEM) and finite integration technique (FIT) were used for numerical computations.

Apoptosis induced by ultraviolet radiation is enhanced by amplitude modulated radiofrequency radiation in mutant yeast cells.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure affects cell death processes of yeast cells. Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells of the strains KFy417 (wild-type) and KFy437 (cdc48-mutant) were exposed to 900 or 872 MHz RF fields, with or without exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and incubated simultaneously with elevated temperature (+37 degrees C) to induce apoptosis in the cdc48-mutated strain. The RF exposure was carried out in a special waveguide exposure chamber where the temperature of the cell cultures can be precisely controlled.

Assessment of the magnetic field exposure due to the battery current of digital mobile phones.

Hand-held digital mobile phones generate pulsed magnetic fields associated with the battery current. The peak value and the waveform of the battery current were measured for seven different models of digital mobile phones, and the results were applied to compute approximately the magnetic flux density and induced currents in the phone-user's head. A simple circular loop model was used for the magnetic field source and a homogeneous sphere consisting of average brain tissue equivalent material simulated the head.