Mortality by neoplasia and cellular telephone base stations in the Belo Horizonte municipality, Minas Gerais state, Brazil ☆
Adilza C. Dode a,b,e,⁎, Mônica M.D. Leão c, Francisco de A.F. Tejo d, Antônio C.R. Gomes e, Daiana C. Dode e, f,
Michael C. Dode e, Cristina W. Moreira b, Vânia A. Condessa b, Cláudia Albinatti b, Waleska T. Caiaffa g
a Minas Methodist University Center Izabela Hendrix, Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
b Municipal Government of Belo Horizonte, Municipal Health Department, Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
c UFMG-Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-Belo Horizonte, Environmental and Sanitary Engineering Department, Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
d UFCG-Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Center of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Academic Unit of Electrical Engineering, Paraíba State, Brazil
e MRE Engenharia (Electromagnetic Radiations Measurement-Engineering), Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
f Faculty of Medical Sciences, Medicine-Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
g UFMG-Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais-Belo Horizonte, Urban Health Observatory, Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais State, Brazil
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 14 January 2011
Received in revised form 25 May 2011
Accepted 25 May 2011
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Assessment and management of impacts
and environmental risks
Non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation
Public health
Radio base station
Environmental electromagnetic pollution
Environmental electromagnetic
field monitoring
Pollution caused by the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of radio frequencies (RF) generated by the
telecommunication systemis one of the greatest environmental problems of the twentieth century. The purpose
of this researchwas to verify the existence of a spatial correlation between base station (BS) clusters and cases of
deaths by neoplasia in the Belo Horizonte municipality, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, from 1996 to 2006 and to
measure the human exposure levels to EMF where there is a major concentration of cellular telephone
transmitter antennas. A descriptive spatial analysis of the BSs and the cases of death by neoplasia identified in the
municipality was performed through an ecological-epidemiological approach, using georeferencing. The
database employed in the survey was composed of three data banks: 1. death by neoplasia documented by the
Health Municipal Department; 2. BSs documented in ANATEL (“Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações”:
‘Telecommunications National Agency’); and 3. census and demographic city population data obtained from
official archives provided by IBGE (“Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística”: ‘Brazilian Institute of
Geography and Statistics’). The results show that approximately 856 BSswere installed through December 2006.
Most (39.60%) of the BSs were located in the “Centro-Sul” (‘Central-Southern’) region of the municipality.
Between 1996 and 2006, 7191 deaths by neoplasia occurred and within an area of 500 m from the BS, the
mortality rate was 34.76 per 10,000 inhabitants. Outside of this area, a decrease in the number of deaths by
neoplasia occurred. The greatest accumulated incidence was 5.83 per 1000 in the Central-Southern region and
the lowest incidence was 2.05 per 1000 in the Barreiro region. During the environmental monitoring, the largest
accumulated electric fieldmeasured was 12.4 V/mand the smallest was 0.4 V/m. The largest density powerwas
40.78 μW/cm2, and the smallest was 0.04 μW/cm2.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Mobile phone radio base stations (RBSs) are now found in cities
and communities worldwide. They can be found near or even on top
of homes, schools, hospitals, daycare centers and offices. In Brazil, the
number of mobile phone users is estimated to be over 200 million and
there are more than 5 billion users worldwide. In the municipality of
Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, there are
approximately 1000 base stations (BSs) with 128.77 accesses by
mobile phones per 100 inhabitants and in Brazil, there are 49,979 BSs
licensed through April 2011 (ANATEL, 2011).
The non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation from the BSs is of low
intensity compared to the current guidelines on human exposure
limits. However, its emission is continuous. This raises concerns as to
whether the health and well-being of people living or working close
to the BSs are at risk Khurana et al., 2010; Alanko et al., 2008.
The emission of a BS is usually described by its effectively radiated
power in watts (W), which describes the total amount of radiation
emitted by the antenna of the BS. Their intensity, called the power
density, is commonly measured in milliwatts per square centimeter
(mW/cm2) or microwatt per square centimeter (μW/cm2) and it
expresses the power per unit area impinging normally to the external
surface of the subject. The immission (absorption) of the subject is
measured by the specific absorption rate (SAR), which is reported in
Science of the Total Environment xxx (2011) xxx-xxx
☆ All the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
⁎ Corresponding author at: Rua Desembargador Assis Rocha, 279, Bairro Belvedere,
30320-250, Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil. Tel.: +55 031 3286 1892.
E-mail addresses: adilzadode@terra.com.br (A.C. Dode), monica@desa.ufmg.br
(M.M.D. Leão).
STOTEN-12672; No of Pages 17
0048-9697/$ - see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.05.051
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Science of the Total Environment
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv
Please cite this article as: Dode AC, et al, Mortality by neoplasia and cellular telephone base stations in the Belo Horizonte municipality,
Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Sci Total Environ (2011), doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.05.051
5. Conclusion
This research showed the existence of a spatial correlation
between cases of death by neoplasia and the locations of the BSs, in
the Belo Horizonte municipality from 1996 to 2006.
The mortality rates and the relative risk were higher for the
residents inside a radius of 500 m from the BS, compared to the
average mortality rate of the entire city, and a decreased dose-
response gradient was observed for residents who lived farther away
from the BS. The major antenna concentration was located in the
Central-Southern SD of the city, which also had the largest
accumulated incidence (5.83/1000 inhabitants).
The measured values of the EMF, determined in 2008 and 2003,
were substantially below the values allowed by the Brazilian federal
law nr. 11934, May 5, 2009. Nevertheless, the values encountered in
this study surpassed the limits of human exposure adopted by many
other countries and cities in the world, including Italy (10 μW/cm2);
China (6.6 μW/cm2); Switzerland (4.2 μW/cm2); Paris, France
(1 μW/cm2); Salzburg, Austria (0.1 μW/cm2); and Porto Alegre, Brazil
(4.2 μW/cm2).
New epidemiological studies must explore this issue with more
timely and appropriate methodology to provide evidence that may
confirm the relationship between risk and hazard at an individual
level. Meanwhile, we strongly suggest the adoption of the Precautionary
Principle until the limits of human exposure, as established in
Brazilian Federal Law, can be re-evaluated.
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