By Janet Raloff
Vatican Radio operates a forest of 31 communications and broadcast antennas just outside Rome. Like the Vatican itself, this complex is largely immune to local Italian regulation. Measurements indicate, in fact, that the facility’s electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions exceed standards for Italian transmitters. Neighboring communities are concerned about possible health risks of long-term exposure to these EMFs. Their concerns may be well-founded.
Using medical databases, Paola Michelozzi of the Local Health Authority RME in Rome and her colleagues tracked down leukemia cases over a 13-year period within a 10-kilometer radius of the transmitters–an area that’s home to 60,000 people.