National Register of RF Workers - MR1123

This Data Sharing Agreement permits the retention of the data provided under previous iterations of this Agreement for an interim period.

From 2009 until June 2016, the University of Birmingham received data from NHS Digital relating to a cohort of individuals who consented for their information to be included in a National Register of Radiofrequency (RF) Workers.

This Agreement permits processing of the data for the purpose of secure storage and back up only.

This Agreement does not permit any additional processing of the data for any other purpose.

The purpose of this Agreement is to enable the University of Birmingham to retain the data for an interim period in which the University of Birmingham must provide information to the data subjects or otherwise make such information accessible to the data subjects to ensure transparency over how and for what purposes their personal and/or confidential data is obtained and processed and to ensure the data subjects understand their rights in respect of that processing.

No new data will be supplied under this Agreement.

Provision of data under a future version of this Agreement will be dependent on the University of Birmingham demonstrating compliance with the common law duty of confidentiality.

The following information explains the purpose for which the data was previously disseminated:

Since the introduction of radio broadcasting in the 1930’s, the use of radiofrequency (RF) radiation has proliferated to encompass a range of applications across many sectors. Combined with the increase of the wireless office and the growth of mobile telecommunications, the number of persons exposed to RF radiation has rapidly increased and has led to continuing concerns over potential health effects. Though no adverse health outcomes are consistently apparent, its ubiquity means an undetected effect may yet become a serious public health problem. So far, few epidemiological cohort studies have investigated the effects of RF exposure in occupational settings [1-3] and there remains a need for improved research into potential health effects of long-term exposure to RF in the working environment. In classifying RF as 2b “a possible carcinogen” based on studies of mobile phone users, the International Agency for Research into Cancer acknowledged that evidence from previous studies exploring the impact on health of occupational exposures was “inadequate” containing methodological limitations and inconsistent results [4].

In the UK, the need for robust research into potential health effects of occupational RF exposure was recognised back in 2000 with the publication of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones’ report on mobile phones and health [5]. Several recommendations were made for future research and policy, one of which advised a “register of occupationally exposed workers be established, and that cancer risks and mortality be examined to determine whether there are any harmful effects.” As this group was exposed to the highest levels of RF, so any adverse health effects would be visible in this group in advance of the general public. In response, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) established the National Register of RF Workers, a resource for independent researchers to investigate potential or emerging health effects relating to occupational exposure to RF.

The data was supplied for the purpose of a study to obtain new information on the topic of long-term health effects of occupational RF exposure by examining data from the ongoing National Register of RF Workers. Analyses of cancer incidence and cancer mortality will be carried out for each site of cancer (three digit ICD codes) and analyses of non-cancer mortality will be carried out for broad disease categories (ICD chapters).

Data is required over such a long timescale (since 2002) because cancer can have very long intervals between exposure to a risk factor and the clinical presentation of a disease. The cohort has been recruited nationally because national data is required: the study has been established as a national study of all employees with the potential to be exposed to radiofrequency radiation (RF) above public guidelines. This national coverage provides maximum statistical power and provides findings that have national application. The study would be weakened if relying on regional sub-sets of data and the credibility of any findings reduced. Because the potential impact of the findings on national policy for occupational exposure to RF it is important that uncertainty is minimised.

The degree to which the University of Birmingham have filtered the outputs is related to the fact that there is a wide variety of possible harms. The study maintains the original data collected from individuals on their work history and date of birth as this forms an integral part of the analysis allowing for the statistical adjustment of age effects and the development of exposure histories.

The lawful basis for data processing under GDPR is Article 6(1)(e) 'task in the public interest' and Article 9(2)(j) 'historical or scientific research'.

Analysis of individual level data are used to calculate standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for different causes of death, using national mortality rates as a basis of comparison. These SMRs are adjusted for age, sex, and calendar year. Analyses of individual level data are used to calculate standardised registration ratios (SRRs) for different sites of cancer death using national registration (incidence) rates as a basis of comparison. These SRRs are also adjusted for age, sex and calendar year. Estimates of cumulative occupational exposure to magnetic fields have also been calculated for each study member and in lowest exposure group as a baseline or reference category. Such analyses seek evidence of dose-response effects i.e. does the risk of a disease increases with increasing exposure.

References

(1) Lagorio S, Rossi S, Vecchia P, De SM, Bastianini L, Fusilli M, et al . Mortality of Plastic-Ware Workers Exposed to Radiofrequencies. Bioelectromagnetics. 2006;18:418-21.

(2) Morgan RW, Kelsh MA, Zhao K, Exuzides KA, Heringer S, Negrete W. Radiofrequency exposure and mortality from cancer of the brain and lymphatic/hematopoietic systems. Epidemiology. 2000 Mar;11(2):118-27.

(3) Ahlblom A, Cardis E, Green A, Linet M, Savitz D, Swerdlow A. Review of the epidemiologic literature on EMF and health. Environ Health Perspect. 2001;109(supplement 6):911-33.

(4) IARC. Carcinogenicity of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. Lancet Oncology. 201112

(5) Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones. Mobile phones and health. IEGMP; 2000.

This Agreement permits processing of the data for the purpose of secure storage and back up only.

This Agreement does not permit any additional processing of the data for any other purpose.

No new data will be supplied under this Agreement.

The following provides background on the processing activities undertaken for the original study:

Identifying data (full name, date of birth, address or postcode) was shared with NHS Digital to carry out the linkage between the study data and civil registration mortality and cancer registration data. Participants records were ‘flagged’ with NHS Digital. NHS Digital notified the study team at the University of Birmingham of participants’ deaths (date and cause) or cancer registrations when they occurred. Data was last supplied in June 2016.

Data will only be accessed by substantive employees of the University of Birmingham.

Data supplied by NHS Digital was linked to individual level study data containing details on dates of birth and work histories (dates of employment, job titles and incidents of acute exposure at the time of joining the Register). The data will not be made available to any third parties except in the form of aggregated outputs with small numbers suppressed in line with HES Analysis guide.

The data requested from NHS Digital was downloaded to a University of Birmingham computer, saving it in a restricted area of the University server that is only accessible to the specified member of the research team . Data within this area of the server will be backed up internally so that all data can be fully deleted with two weeks of deletion request from NHS Digital. All data will be stored and processed at the University of Birmingham.

On receiving the NHS Digital datasets data on study ID, dates of death, causes of death, dates of cancer registrations and site and type of cancer were transferred to a dated spreadsheet and saved into the same restricted area of the server as the master file. The main study file contains information on the study ID, dates of birth, work histories (this would be added to over time with data on death and cancer registration). Death data was transferred into the master file if a matching study ID is found. In the event that subsequent data provided by NHS Digital contained death data already present in the master file then new and old data will be reviewed to determine if this was duplicate data or if there is a clash of data and two individual files have been confused. Cancer registration data was transferred from the new follow-up file into the main study file if a matching study ID is found.

All organisations party to this Agreement must comply with the Data Sharing Framework Contract requirements, including those regarding the use (and purposes of that use) by “Personnel” (as defined within the Data Sharing Framework Contract i.e: employees, agents and contractors of the Data Recipient who may have access to that data).

The Register provides a valuable long-term framework for research into potential health effects of occupational exposure to RF radiation across a range of industries and has the potential to produce a number of valuable publications. The first of these containing a preliminary analysis of the incidence of cancer within the cohort is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. The manuscript will initially be submitted to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the highest ranking journal that publishes work on occupational exposure and health. The journal is open access which will allow all interested parties to read the article free of charge. A lay summary of these findings will be made available on the Register’s website and submitted for publication in trade journals such as ‘Engineering and Technology’ the journal of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. The press office of the University of Birmingham will also provide a media release. In addition they will engage with the research community by presenting the results at the 2020 edition of the (UK and Ireland) Conference on Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology.

There will be at least one further publication following a full analysis of the data set which will also include an investigation of the cause of death this will be conducted once further follow up has been added providing meaningful additional data. The same avenues for dissemination will be followed including publication in the peer-reviewed literature, production of lay-summaries for wider dissemination and the presentation of the results to the scientific community via the appropriate conference. University of Birmingham expect this to be published by 2025.

All outputs will contain only aggregated data with small numbers suppressed, in accordance with NHS Digital’s HES Analysis Guide.

Most of the expected measurable benefits will be felt by more recent and future employees in the industry. This is because the University of Birmingham are looking at late effect of exposures that have already happened. Measurable effects can only come from improved working conditions experiences by later generations of workers.

Currently the only recognised mechanism for causing adverse health outcomes is the thermal effect, observed when the energy deposited by oscillating electric fields causes an increase in temperature due to the agitation of the mobile ions contained in the body. This causes an electric current, the resistance of which by body tissue leads to heating. The exact nature of this effect is dependent upon the frequency of the signal as this determines the depth to which the RF radiation penetrates the tissue which in turn impacts on whether the temperature receptors in the skin are stimulated, receptors that play an important role in local and whole body thermo-regulation.

The exposure standards for RF are based on the assumption that the primary route of energy absorption is via heat deposition. All current occupational guidelines are devised on this basis.

The largest existing body of evidence of adverse health effects from RF concerns the occurrence of cancer at a number of different sites. The majority of these studies showed that occupational exposure to RF showed no increased risk however isolated studies have shown some potential areas of concern, for example an increased risk for breast cancer in radio operators. In May 2011, the International Agency for Research into Cancer (IARC) convened a meeting of global experts in the subject to review the existing literature and classify the carcinogenic properties of RF; this concluded that the evidence suggested that RF was a possible carcinogen, however the evidence of increased risk of cancer from occupational exposures was judged ‘inadequate’.

The updated linking of mortality and cancer data will allow University of Birmingham to determine if there is a significant health effect as a result of occupational exposure to RF at current levels. Dependent upon the results new limits for occupational exposure will be proposed. These may be in place within two to five years of the release of study results.

Not stated in the register.