EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates – in this newsletter we look at the following topics:

Offshore Wind Farms

Can offshore wind production affect the structure and function of marine ecosystems? What could the potential impacts be?

We take a look at a report by the Eklipse Expert Group on Impacts of Offshore Wind Farm Expansion 

Citation: Cervantes, A., Pace, F., Gallaou, E., Kadiri, M., Velázquez, J., Fernandes, M., Langridge, J., Scott, AJ., Sieber, I.M., Bhatia, S., Limache de la Fuente, D., Maureaud, A.A., Dajka, J (2025). State of knowledge regarding the impacts of offshore wind farm expansion: what are the consequences for achieving Good Environmental Status across European marine waters? Report prepared by an Eklipse Expert Working Group. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17064612

Flora and Fauna: How Nonhuman Species Interact With Natural and Man-Made EMF at Ecosystem Levels — and Public Policy Recommendations

The authors of this article call for an urgent, government-wide response that treats EMF as an air pollutant and establishes the emerging discipline of air ecology (aeroecology).

Citation: Levitt BB, Lai HC, Manville AM II, Scarato T (2025). Flora and fauna: how nonhuman species interact with natural and man-made EMF at ecosystem levels and public policy recommendations. Front. Public Health 13:1693873. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1693873

Comment by EMFSA: Under South Africa’s National Environmental Management Act (NEMA 107 of 1998), the legal definition of pollution is broad enough to include different forms of energy, specifically waves. 

Pesticides – Another Environmental Pollutant of Concern

Citation: Paola Gabriela Viglietti, Lena Jäggi, Hannah Wey, Anouk Petitpierre, Christian Lindh, Kim-Louise Rousseau, Jade Mac Donnell, Martin Röösli, Susan Malcolm-Smith, Samuel Fuhrimann, Mohamed Aqiel Dalvie, Postnatal pesticide exposure and executive function in children and adolescents: Findings from South Africa, Environmental Research, Volume 289, 2026, 123310, ISSN 0013-9351, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.123310

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA)

Terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) is the standard digital communication system used by police and other emergency services in Great Britain. During active use, TETRA emits radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which are potentially carcinogenic in humans. Here, using data on objective call duration, the authors examined cancer risk from personal radio use among police forces across Great Britain. No significant association was detected between radio use, call duration, and cancer risk. 

RESEARCH ARTICLE Personal radio use and risk of cancers among police officers in Great Britain: Results from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.70255

Radiofrequency Exposure and Cancer – ANSES Findings

On the 26/11/2025, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) published their findings on RFR exposure and cancer https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/exposition-aux-ondes-de-nouvelles-etudes-precisent-les-connaissances-sur-le-risque-de

Two French NGOs have provided commentary on ANSES’s report

Aviation: Persistent 5G Challenges

IATA Urges ITU to Strengthen Safeguards for Aircraft Safety Systems as 5G/6G Expands https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2025-releases/2025-11-20-01/

See our book recommendations for the festive season!

(Image used with permission of the author)

EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates  https://mailchi.mp/emfsa/emfsa-november-2025-newsletter

Further reading: Maritime 5G and Marine Ecosystems https://www.emfsa.co.za/news/maritime-5g-and-marine-ecosystems/

The post EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates appeared first on EMFSA.

16th of December 2023

Widely known causes of insect decline are deforestation, pesticide use, artificial light pollution and climate change.

Although there is growing concern about the effect of anthropogenic (man made) electromagnetic radiation exposure to insects we cannot ignore the effect of another type of anthropogenic EMR, artificial light at night (ALAN).

Vanbergen et al.,2019: “The extent that anthropogenic EMR (ALAN or AREMR) represents a significant threat to insect pollinators and the benefits they provide to nature and humankind therefore remains to be clearly established” (AREMR = anthropogenic radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation).

This Brief focuses on the lighting design adaptations and mitigation measures tailored for sensitive habitats and taxa. It also highlights ongoing efforts by local governments and communities to address Artificial Light at Night pollution (ALAN).

As per the Brief, regarding insects

Insects

There is concern that the increased usage of white LEDs will impact insects as they are more sensitive to short wavelengths. One group that is particularly prone to negative effects of ALAN are moths, and research has shown that light pollution affects their reproduction and development. In turn, it also affects the composition of moth assemblages and the ecosystem functions they perform.

The EU Pollinators Initiative is the first ever EU action framework to tackle the decline of wild pollinators. A workshop took place online in 2022, which aimed to strengthen actions to enhance pollinator friendly artificial night lighting in Europe, through the existing Pollinators Initiative (Stockhammer, Zulka and Schindler, 2022). Organised by DG Environment and the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), the workshop was aimed at experts across stakeholder groups, including public authorities, practitioners engaged in spatial planning, innovation and social change experts, academia, land managers and non- governmental organisations The resulting revised EU Pollinators Initiative was released in January 2023 9, recommending member states to mitigate the impact of light pollution through national and regional policies. The updated initiative also highlighted the Commission’s new guidelines on light pollution mitigation for cities10 and citizens for pollinator conservation11.

The revised EU Pollinators Initiative states that the Commission has integrated recommendations on how to mitigate light pollution into its guidelines for citizens and cities, and will continue to promote them (European Commission, 2023).

The interaction of light pollution with other pollutants is still poorly understood, and therefore a growing concern of the science community. 

Two large scale interdisciplinary research projects investigating the impact of light pollution and effectiveness of mitigation measures, are planned to be funded within the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV01-2)17. Both projects will investigate light and noise pollution with respect to impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services and innovative mitigation measures, with ‘AquaPlan’ (101135471), focussed on European seas lakes and rivers, whereas ‘Plan B’ (101135308) is focussed on terrestrial ecosystems.

What we can all do to reduce light pollution outside your house:

To lower skyglow in your city, town or village you can minimise light pollution outside your house, in your garden, terrace or front door. Do you need lights in these spaces all the time? If not, can they be used only at certain times of night? Motion activation or temporal lighting with automatic timers can help. Extinguish lights when not needed, or dim to the lowest acceptable light intensity. Use lights which are shielded – so light doesn’t travel upwards or downwards unnecessarily, and use warm lights with a red wavelength rather than a blue one. Lastly, simply close your curtains or shutters in the evening when you turn on lights inside your home (IEEP, 2020). https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/future-brief-light-pollution-mitigation-measures-environmental-protection-issue-28_en

Biomonitors

Mair KS, Irrgeher J, Haluza D. Elucidating the Role of Honey Bees as Biomonitors in Environmental Health Research. Insects. 2023 Nov;14(11):874. DOI: 10.3390/insects14110874. PMID: 37999073; PMCID: PMC10671894

The study does not consider anthropogenic light or EMF exposure but provides an insight into the biomonitoring of the honey bee and how it  delivers valuable information on the state of the shared environment and how well honey bees can help us monitor pollutants from an environmental health perspective.

The earliest publication on the use of honey bees as bioindicators dates back to 1935, when Svoboda reviewed the negative effects of industrial pollutants on honey bees in former Czechoslovakia, as stated by Porrini et al. [5]. Since then, honey bees have been used in numerous biomonitoring studies, ranging from assessing radionuclides after the nuclear plant incident at Chernobyl to determining pesticide contamination at agricultural sites [5,6,7,8,9].

The systematic literature review provided a comprehensive overview of the utilization of the honey bee as a tool for pollutant monitoring, encompassing articles published within the decade spanning from 2010 to 2020. Nineteen studies were included in the systematic literature review. Of these studies, the majority (n = 15) focused on the detection of heavy metals in honey bees and beehive products, while 4 studies focused on air pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or particulate matter.

The authors state that by using the One Health approach, a safer world for all living creatures, fostering a balance between human development and the preservation of ecosystems, can be achieved. This concept not only protects human health but also recognizes the intrinsic value of biodiversity and the critical role animals and the environment play in our shared well-being. From an environmental health viewpoint, the honey bee can be considered as a model organism for the One Health concept [19].

Read the full article https://europepmc.org/article/MED/37999073

Biological effects of electromagnetic fields on insects: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review summarizes the results of studies investigating the toxicity of electromagnetic fields in insects. According to the authors, biological effects of non-thermal EMF on insects are clearly proven in the laboratory, but only partly in the field, thus the wider ecological implications are still unknown. Reference: Thill, Alain, Cammaerts, Marie-Claire and Balmori, Alfonso. “Biological effects of electromagnetic fields on insects: a systematic review and meta-analysis” Reviews on Environmental Health, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh-2023-0072

ETAIN is part of the CLUE-H cluster focused on Electromagnetic Fields, Health Risks, and 5G

By developing anatomically and electromagnetically accurate 3D ElectroMagnetic (3D-EM) models of insects, the project quantifies potential changes in their RF-EMF exposure and answers the question whether (non-) thermal effects in insects could occur.

Honey Bees, solitary bees and blue bottle flies will also be studied to test if RF-EMF exposure impacts the immature development and fitness of insect pollinators.

The absorption and penetration of RF-EMF in insects is expected to increase due to the shift towards 5G and 6G, caused by resonance effects in small bodies. 

ETAIN updates systematic reviews on RF-EMF health effects with upcoming evidence from the scientific literature, results from this project such as effects on skin, eye, insects and other anticipated results while creating a white paper with policy recommendations. https://www.etainproject.eu/the-project

Climate Change

“We warn that, if no action is taken to better understand and reduce the action of climate change on insects, we will drastically reduce our ability to build a sustainable future based on healthy, functional ecosystems.” Harvey et al., 2022

Outdoor lighting is not currently included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all members to the United Nations, although most of the 17 sustainable development goals are impacted by light pollution.

To ensure a more ecological sustainable future in Europe, and globally, individuals, cities, governments and international conservation organisations need to include the effects of anthropogenic lighting in planning and decision-making. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/future-brief-light-pollution-mitigation-measures-environmental-protection-issue-28_en

Climate impact disclosure

Despite mobile operators being at the forefront of net zero ambitions and most disclosing their climate impacts, a significant part of the ecosystem currently does not report its impact. Of total global connections, 2.8 billion (34%) are currently provided by mobile operators that do not disclose their climate impact. While operators from more developed countries are likely to have higher levels of disclosure, less developed countries in Asia and Africa have the strongest representation in the list of those that do not disclose. To fully understand the emissions of the mobile industry, harmonised and ubiquitous climate impact disclosure is essential. 

5G

Although 5G offers a significant energy-efficiency improvement per gigabyte when compared to previous technologies, new 5G use cases and the adoption of mmWave will require more sites and antennas. This leads to the prospect of a more efficient network that could paradoxically result in higher emissions in the absence of active intervention. 5G is the first wireless technology where energy efficiency has been considered during standardisation.

Each cellular technology has become more energy efficient since 2G as the transmission technology has improved. On top of this, a number of energy saving measures are built into the 5G standard, such as sleep or shutdown functions in the transceiver and a low-energy scheduler solution. 5G has been designed with network energy efficiency in mind, with 5G’s specification offering the potential for a 90% reduction in energy use to transfer each bit of data compared to previous wireless technologies. https://www.gsma.com/betterfuture/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Moble-Net-Zero-State-of-the-Industry-on-Climate-Action-2022.pdf

Solutions that are effective, economical and pragmatic – South African National Report 2022

The number of LIGHT, EMF and Climate Change related complaints received by various government departments has been increasing over time. In the past, these have not been handled optimally, but there is now a general consensus to strive toward cooperative solutions and synergy. One of the proposed means employed is to increase both technical and non-technical communication strategies. This will encourage the nation’s inhabitants to become citizen scientists in a pedagogy that is aligned with this committee’s voice. Dialogue and growth in working together is needed and why the designed and carried out solutions in this report are effective- economical and pragmatic, enabling all residents of SA and globally to employ, test, and enhance within their own personal spaces, work and government facilities.

Example:

Reference:

Lech, James; Krüger, Tjaart; Boros, László; Venter, Derik; Obajuluwa, Adejoke; Abrahamse, Heidi; et al. (2022). World Health Organization – International EMF Project – International Advisory Committee (IAC) – 11th anniversary of the International Optical Radiation and 26th anniversary of EMF Project meeting, World Health Organization – International EMF Project – International Advisory Committee (IAC) . figshare. Conference contribution. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.20012759.v1; also available at

In conclusion

It is vital to lead by example and adapt our residences and businesses accordingly for the sake of environmental health.

The post Insects: Anthropogenic Electromagnetic Radiation (including ALAN) – Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Environmental Health appeared first on EMFSA.

by Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB)

Light pollution—too much artificial light in the wrong place at the wrong time is one reason for the decline in insect numbers worldwide. New research from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) shows that current strategies for reducing the impact of light pollution do not go far enough in protecting aquatic insect species.

Most people are familiar with the sight of insects swarming around a streetlight at night. This well-known phenomenon shows one of the most severe ecological effects of artificial light at night—disruption of nocturnal insect location and behavior. Such is the attraction of artificial light to nocturnal insects, that the light acts like a “vaccuum cleaner,” drawing insects away from their regular habitat and out of their usual behavioral cycles. The effect not only disrupts the insects’ behavior and distribution, but has knock-on effects on the ecosystems in which they play a vital part. For example, nocturnal insects play an important role as pollinators. The recent German “Insect Protection Act” (Federal Nature Conservation Act) has anchored the implementation of insect-friendly lighting as a crucial strategy for biodiversity protection.

Insects and larvae are also attracted to light under water

In numerous studies, Dr. Franz Hölker’s team has been able to show the influence of artificial light on flying and ground-dwelling insects. Now the researchers have investigated the effect on aquatic insects and insect larvae. Inland waters are particularly affected by light pollution as the shores of rivers and lakes are often densely built-up and brightly lit at night.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2021-09-aquatic-insects-sensitive-pollution.html

The post Aquatic insects are sensitive to light pollution appeared first on EMFSA.

Sriram Murali

Being under a sky full of stars makes you feel tiny, humble, kind and caring. But, thanks to light pollution, most people lack this connection. Millions of kids are robbed of finding their passion for Astronomy. We’ve lost the potential for thousands of great minds. We are losing our identity only increasing the difference between us. In less than hundred years, we have drastically altered our night time environment.

Light pollution affects our health, disrupts our sleep patterns, increases the risk of cancer, diabetes, hormonal disorders and other diseases. Millions of birds are killed each year colliding into brightly lit buildings. Baby sea turtles(hatchlings) are often confused by bright lights and never make it to the sea. And we’ve only begun to understand the effects. But, fortunately, there are ways to fix it. The International Dark Sky Association recommends using shielded lighting, low color temperature LEDs(2700K and less), motion sensors for safety than leaving lights on all night.

Unshielded bright LEDs create a lot of glare and impairs vision. Several cities and municipalities have recently switched to dark sky friendly lighting and people are welcoming the change – they’ve hardly noticed any difference in lighting and in fact, hated harsh bright lights. Tucson, Phoenix, Montreal, the state of Georgia are all examples. It makes me really happy and optimistic hearing these success stories. Fighting light pollution does not mean turning all your lights off, it’s about being wise with our lighting choices.

Music: Imagine by Ryan Taubert

Copyright All Rights Reserved

The post Lost in Light II – a short film on Light Pollution appeared first on EMFSA.

80% of the world’s population live under light polluted skies. What do we lose when we lose sight of the stars? Excessive and improper lighting robs us of our night skies, disrupts our sleep patterns and endangers nocturnal habitats. The current advances in LED technology have enabled several cities to safely light their streets and save energy without disrupting the nighttime environment. Saving the Dark explores the need to preserve night skies and what we can do to combat light pollution. Created in association with the International Dark-Sky Association.

The post Saving the Dark | Documentary | Light Pollution [HD] appeared first on EMFSA.

By Elizabeth Pennisi May. 4, 2021

Each summer, on bridges across the world, mayfly massacres occur. First, warm weather prompts the transformation of the insects’ aquatic larvae. Within hours, the short-lived, flying adults pop out of streams, rivers, and lakes, eager to mate and lay eggs by the millions.

But bridges illuminated with artificial light can lure the newly emerged adults away from the water to a futile death before breeding. Others, fooled by the sheen of reflective pavement, drop their eggs on the bridge road instead of the water. Because mayflies control the growth of algae and are food for fish, the fate of these humble insects may reverberate through ecosystems, says Ádám Egri, a biological physicist at the Centre for Ecological Research in Budapest, Hungary, who is working to save endangered mayflies there.

Mayflies aren’t alone in their fatal attraction to what researchers refer to as ALAN: artificial light at night. Studies from around the globe are finding worrisome impacts on insect mating and abundance, says Stéphanie Vaz, an entomologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s main campus. In the past year, researchers have published the first experimental and regional studies of the problem, and in March, Insect Conservation and Diversity devoted a special issue to the topic.

Some researchers think brighter nights may be a factor in recently documented insect declines, says Stephen Ferguson, a physiological ecologist at the College of Wooster. With insect numbers dropping by 80% in some places and 40% of insect species headed for extinction by some estimates, “Some researchers have started to make more noise about the ‘insect apocalypse,’” Ferguson says. “ALAN is almost certainly one of the drivers.”

Read more at

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/can-scientists-help-insects-survive-their-fatal-attraction-light-night

The post Can scientists help insects survive their fatal attraction to light at night? appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Artificial light at night has rapidly spread around the globe over the last decades. Evidence is increasing that it has adverse effects on the behavior, physiology, and survival of animals and plants with consequences for species interactions and ecosystem functioning. For example, artificial light at night disrupts plant-pollinator interactions at night and this can have consequences for the plant reproductive output. By experimentally illuminating natural plant-pollinator communities during the night using commercial street-lamps we tested whether light at night can also change interactions of a plant-pollinator community during daytime. Here we show that artificial light at night can alter diurnal plant-pollinator interactions, but the direction of the change depends on the plant species. We conclude that the effect of artificial light at night on plant-pollinator interactions is not limited to the night, but can also propagate to the daytime with so far unknown consequences for the pollinator community and the diurnal pollination function and services they provide.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22011-8

The post Impact of artificial light at night on diurnal plant-pollinator interactions appeared first on EMFSA.

The post Why you should care about light pollution appeared first on EMFSA.

Source

Sitran lausunto 26 GHz taajuusalueen huutokaupasta

Published 3/6/2020

Opinion

Sitra is grateful for the opportunity to comment on the auction of the 26 GHz band.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are progressing at an alarming rate. For example, the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in October 2018, highlighted the exceptional gravity of the situation. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees requires immediate and unprecedented action. ¹

According to a May 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Nature (IPBES) report, the loss of biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides is now unprecedented ² . The impoverishment of nature also threatens the well-being of mankind.

Sitra encourages measures that promote the sustainable use of natural resources, slow down climate change, safeguard biodiversity and create economic growth and employment with less environmental impact. The aim should be to decouple economic growth from the use of natural resources and climate emissions in order to adapt our societies to the limits of the Earth’s carrying capacity. Digitalisation and many technological solutions help with this decoupling, and it is therefore important to promote them.

However, digitalisation and the use of technology are also factors that accelerate climate change and reduce biodiversity and therefore need to be addressed. These include the increasing use of energy and natural resources.

To date, little research has been done into 5G technology and its impact on the environment. Some studies have suggested that the 5G network and its frequencies could have adverse effects on the environment such as humans, plants, animals, insects and microbes. ^{3 However,} scientific evidence on the health and environmental impacts of 5G networks is contradictory. ^{3, 4}

In its statement, Sitra emphasizes that the latest scientific information on the health, environmental and climate impact of 5G technology should be taken into account when deciding on the 5G network and the frequencies it uses. In the light of the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, Sitra emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive and multidisciplinary assessment of the latest research data. If the necessary research data is not available, it must be obtained before making a decision.

Sources:

IPCC (2018): Global Warming of 1.5˚C. Summary for Policymakers

² IPBES (2019): Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Summary for Policymakers

³ European Parliamentary Research Service, EPRS (2020): Effects of 5G wireless communication on human health

⁴ Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks, SCHEER (2018): Statement on Emerging Health and Environmental Issues

The post Sitra’s statement on the auction of the 26 GHz band appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Electromagnetic surveys generate electromagnetic fields to map petroleum deposits under the seabed with unknown consequences for marine animals. The electric and magnetic fields induced by electromagnetic surveys can be detected by many marine animals, and the generated fields may potentially affect the behavior of perceptive animals. Animals using magnetic cues for migration or local orientation, especially during a restricted time-window, risk being affected by electromagnetic surveys. In electrosensitive animals, anthropogenic electric fields could disrupt a range of behaviors. The lack of studies on effects of the electromagnetic fields induced by electromagnetic surveys on the behavior of magneto- and electrosensitive animals is a reason for concern. Here, we review the use of electric and magnetic fields among marine animals, present data on survey generated and natural electromagnetic fields, and discuss potential effects of electromagnetic surveys on the behavior of marine animals.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338814097_Electric_and_magnetic_senses_in_marine_animals_and_potential_behavioral_effects_of_electromagnetic_surveys

The post Electric and magnetic senses in marine animals, and potential behavioral effects of electromagnetic surveys appeared first on EMFSA.