ETAIN Researchers Present Latest Findings at BioEM Society's Annual Meeting in Greece
From the 16th to the 21st of June, 2024, the third annual meeting of the new BioEM Society took place in Chania, Greece. At this conference, several ETAIN researchers presented the latest updates of the project to a mixed audience of academic and industrial participants from all over the world.
During the event, ETAIN’s project coordinator Dr. Anke Huss presented the project to the community. She shared the three main objectives of the project: interacting with the public and stakeholders about radiofrequency electromagnetic fields exposure levels and possible associated risks; exploring options for exposure reduction; and developing an approach to assess the impact of existing and novel technology from a planetary health perspective. She also presented the different tools that the project partners are developing or have developed that will help accomplish these objectives.
Dr. Huss, along with the ETAIN researcher Dr. Martin Röösli, also presented the projects’ app and the dose calculator. Both tools aim to provide users with information about their daily exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). The app analyzes the phone's connection to data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth and informs users about the healthiest ways to use their devices. For example, it recommends making phone calls when the signal connection is strongest, as exposure to RF-EMF will be lower (avoiding all the exposure that occurs when the phone is searching for a good signal connection - learn more). The dose calculator is already in place and aims to provide users with information about their daily exposure, based on the hours and ways they use technology connected to RF-EMF. The goal is that with this dose information, users can better understand their behavior with technology and RF-EMF.
ETAIN researchers present on the conference also presented other relevant information about the latest findings on insects' RF-EMF exposure: shared the different experiments underway in Greece including the installation of a custom 5G-emulating exposure setup with RF-EMF emission in two 90° sectors and the insect traps and honey bee colonies that are placed in all areas at different distances. Additionally, information about studies analyzing the effect of RF-EMF on humans was provided.
During these days, other activities also took place. On the third day, the Clue-H consortium meeting occurred, in which ETAIN works with the NextGEM project, SEAWave project, and Project GOLIAT. In this meeting, ETAIN members presented the 3D bee models created to explore the effects of RF-EMF on insects, announced that our project's RF-EMF app is nearing completion and will be launched soon, and informed everyone that the ETAIN dose calculator is now available on our website. Additionally, during the BioEM conference, ETAIN researcher Lea Belackova received the student poster award for her work “Temporal Change of Outdoor RF-EMF Levels in European Countries: A Microenvironmental Measurement Study - Example of the Netherlands”.
