High Radiofrequency Radiation in the Surroundings of 10 Schools in Örebro, Sweden

Lennart Hardell^{*, 1}, Mona Nilsson²

¹The Environment and Cancer Research Foundation, Örebro, Sweden

²Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation, Adelsö, Sweden

^*Corresponding author: Lennart Hardell, The Environment and Cancer Research Foundation, Örebro, Sweden.

Received: 02 April 2025; Accepted: 09 April 2025; Published: 21 April 2025

Introduction

Radiofrequency (RF) radiation was in 2011 classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the WHO (1,2). Since then, RF radiation in the environment has increased considerably mainly due to the implementation of the fifth generation, 5G, for wireless communication (3-7). Health consequences of RF radiation on the developing child are of special concern (8-11). In Sweden the roll-out of the fifth generation, 5G, for wireless communication started in 2019/2020. Thereby older systems such as 2G and 3G are phased out, whereas 4G is still in operation, usually together with 5G. An appeal from scientists and physicians has required a moratorium of the expansion of 5G until potential health risks have been studied (www.5gappeal.eu). Others have required better protection against health effects in terms of lower limits for allowed exposure levels (www.emfcall.org, www.emfscientist.org). In spite of these requests, installation of 5G continues, causing increasing RF radiation exposure to humans and the environment, without any studies showing that it is safe in terms of health effects (4,12).

The growing child is particularly vulnerable to RF radiation (8,9). The exposure is of special concern in schools where children spend many hours each day. Therefore, a significant portion of children’s exposure to RF radiation may be the school due to exposure sources inside the school such as Wi-Fi routers, wireless connected computers, and mobile phones (13). In addition, there are outside sources such as 4G and 5G base stations or masts. This study aimed to investigate the exposure to RF-radiation from nearby base stations for 4G and 5G in the areas close to a number of schools in Sweden.

Materials and Methods

In total 10 schools in the city of Örebro in Sweden were selected at random for measurements of the RF radiation in the close environment. It was made during daytime on October 22-24, 2024, that is Tuesday to Thursday, during the time the students were at school. All four sides of the schools were measured during at least 6 minutes while walking on the schoolyard, if possible, otherwise on the nearest street. The meter was held with a stretched arm at the height of the shoulder during measurements. The measurements were made with the Narda broadband field meter NBM-550, with the probe EF-1891, measuring frequencies between 3 MHz-18 GHz and measurement range 0.6 V/m (955 µW/m²) to 65 V/m (11,206,897 µW/m²). This meter shows results in root mean square (RMS) for both minimum, maximum and average RF radiation level. The frequencies used for 5G in city environments in Sweden are in general around 3.5 GHz while frequencies used for 4G are primarily around 2.6 GHz (https://www.induo.com/b/lte-band-mobilt-bredband/).

Results

The results of the RF radiation measurements are displayed in Table 1, in total at 40 spots. The lowest measured level was < 955 µW/m², which is the minimum detection level for the Narda meter. The maximum level varied from 10,716 to 68,452 µW/m², see Table 2. Both the average and maximum levels varied for all schools depending on the spot. Large difference was seen for Tullängen high school with the maximum level varying from 5,968 to 68,452 μW/m². Also, most of the other schools showed large variation of the maximum level of RF radiation, e,g., Rudbeck High School, Olaus Petri High School, and Svealund School, see Table 1.

Table 1: Minimum, average and maximum measured radiofrequency radiation in µW/m² (RMS) in the surroundings of 10 schools, Örebro, Sweden, using Narda NBM-550 broadband field meter.

Table 2: Maximum measured radiofrequency radiation in µW/m² (RMS) in the surroundings of 10 schools in Örebro, Sweden in October 22-24, 2024. All measurements were made with Narda NBM-550 broadband meter.

Discussion

The environmental exposure to RF radiation is increasing, in large part due to the deployment of 5G. Evidence indicates that children and adolescents are more vulnerable than adults to RF radiation exposure (14,15). This is due to the fact that their cells are rapidly dividing and the organ systems are immature. RF radiation exposure may have adverse neurobehavioral effects and also negative impact on cognition (16,17). We have previously published seven case studies (18-24) and one summary of these case studies on health effects on people from exposure to 4G/5G base stations (7). Our case studies, that also included children aged 4-8 years, showed clear negative health effects also among the children. Most prevalent were negative impact on sleep, fatigue and headache, see Table 1 in (7). The RF radiation levels inside the buildings were measured with a meter, Safe and Sound Pro II, measuring peak maximum levels, showing that exposures were in the range of 135,983 to > 3,180,000 µW/m². In one additional case study not included in (7), an eight year old boy, was reported to suffer headaches when in school where a max peak level of 267,000 μW/m² was measured outside the school at the schoolyard (25).

In this present study, the maximum levels were lower than those measured in the previous case studies (7). Levels ranged from 10,716 to 68,452 µW/m² in close surroundings of the 10 measured schools, see Table 2. However the results using Safe and Sound Pro II showing peak values, as in our previous studies, are not comparable with the present findings based on measurements with the Narda broad band meter. The latter results are based on Root Mean Square (RMS) calculations, i.e. the square root of the average of the squares of a set of numbers. Thus these results show lower values than the peak measurements using Safe and Sound Pro II. This is shown in one of our previous case studies where both meters were used, see Table 2 in (22). The Narda meter RMS results were considerably lower than Safe and Sound maximum peak exposure values. As one example, at two different spots, the Safe and Sound meter showed max peak levels of 749,000 µW/m² (sleeping room, desk, daughter) and 504,000 µW/m² (sleeping room, pillow, daughter). The Narda RMS maximum levels at the same spots were 137,889 µW/m² and 88,616 µW/m², respectively (22). Both measurements were made at the same time.

Numerous studies have shown neurological effects at exposure levels below the ICNIRP limits (26). Those limits have been adopted by most countries although they only protect against thermal acute effects observed at very high intensities within an hour in animal laboratory experiments (27). Oxidative damage of DNA has been reported to be caused by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (10,28). This may cause long-term health effects such as increased risk of cancer (29). In 2016 a group of scientists published recommendations for more protective RF exposure limits than those by ICNIRP. The EUROPAEM EMF guidelines, based on scientific results showing negative health impacts from long term exposure, recommend maximum daytime RF radiation exposure to be 10-1,000 μW/m², while nighttime exposure should not exceed 1-100 μW/m². For sensitive persons, the maximum levels should not exceed 0.1-10 μW/m² (30).

Conclusion

Our results of RF radiation measurements indicate that the exposure to RF-radiation from nearby 4G and 5G base stations in the surroundings of 10 schools in Sweden is high. These levels may cause increased risks of both short term and long term negative effects on children’s health.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Funding

No funding was received

Availability of data and materials

The information generated and analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Author’s contributions

LH and MN contributed to the conception, design and writing of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Patient consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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