German Mobile Telecommunication Research Programme (DMF)

What is the issue?

The DMF was a research programme initiated by the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) and the BfS and was carried out between 2002 and 2008. The DMF was funded in equal parts by the BMU and the mobile phone operators with a total of € 17 million. Despite the proportional funding, the mobile communications operators had no say in the selection of the research projects or in the evaluation of the research results. The DMF was coordinated and implemented exclusively by the BfS. It comprised a total of 54 research projects from the fields of "biology", "dosimetry", "epidemiology", and "risk communication". In 2008 and 2012, the voluntary commitment of the mobile network operators was renewed and supplemented with additional financial resources. This made it possible to carry out further projects to complement or expand the DMF.

What were the goals of the DMF?

The DMF had the goal of reducing the existing scientific uncertainties, clarifying pressing questions discussed in the scientific community and in public, and thus contributing to the enlightenment of the population. This referred to the implementation of the programme, to the award procedures for the research projects, and to the progress and assessment of the individual studies. It was particularly important to replicate studies that had shown evidence of biological effects. These and other studies to clarify the open questions were followed up with high quality standards as well as strictly defined and well documented exposure conditions in order to ensure a comparison and evaluation of the study results. Another focus was on interdisciplinary cooperation between a wide range of disciplines. The frequency range investigated was deliberately broad and in part went beyond the GSM and UMTS frequency range that was primarily used at the time in order to allow statements to be made about future developments as far as possible.

What were the results of the DMF and complementary follow-up studies?

The projects in the field of dosimetry showed that exposure in everyday life is subject to considerable temporal and spatial fluctuations. A steady increase in public exposure to the mobile communications frequencies studied was observed. However, on average, this remained many orders of magnitude below the limits. Only when using sources close to the body (as is the case with mobile phones) the limit values were approached.

Cell-culture studies revealed no undiscovered mechanisms of action in the “athermal” range below the limit values. This was consistent with results on acute effects in test subjects. The experimental studies showed no impairment of sleep, cognitive performance, or memory or in the processing of visual or acoustic stimuli. Epidemiological studies also failed to show any correlation between the fields from base stations and sleep disturbances, headaches, general health complaints, or psychological or physical quality of life. This also applies to electrosensitive persons, in whom it was not possible to find a correlation between actual field exposure and various symptoms.

In order to investigate possible long-term effects of repeated or chronic exposure, multi-generational animal studies were carried out. However, these did not provide any evidence of negative effects of mobile communication fields – neither GSM nor UMTS. Various endpoints were studied. These included blood-brain barrier permeability, various cancers, tinnitus, learning and memory, stress response and immune parameters, and reproduction and development.

Epidemiological studies were also unable to find an increased risk of brain or eye tumour disease for mobile phone users – at least for a period of use of up to 10 years. There was also no correlation between the calculated field strength around comparatively powerful radio and TV transmitters and an increased risk of childhood leukaemia.

The DMF as well as supplementary follow-up studies were able to close knowledge gaps on actual exposures and possible health risks of mobile communication technology and thus led to a significant reduction of the scientific uncertainties that existed at the beginning of the programme. However, the programme was unable to provide conclusive answers to some questions. These include possible health risks associated with mobile phone use for longer than 10 years and the question of whether long-term exposure in children – either because of age-related differences or longer lifetime exposure – carries a higher health risk than for adults.

The results of the DMF were discussed and evaluated in expert discussions with recognised scientists and with international participation. The evaluation of the DMF results by the BfS and by the German Commission on Radiological Protection (SSK) was presented to the public in June 2008.

The final reports of the DMF and the supplementary follow-up studies can be viewed in the Digital Online Repository and Information System (DORIS) of the BfS.