Hygienic problems of using information and computer technology devices by children

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Abstract

There was carried out the analysis of information and computer technologies (ICT), which are the main hygienically significant sources of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation for children and adolescents. Early forecasts (before 2008) about the adverse impact of the ICT electromagnetic field on the health of children and adolescents, the fundamental scientific basis for forecasts and data on their feasibility to date are considered. According to state statistics, forecasts of an increase in morbidity due to EMF exposure to children and adolescents are likely to come true. For the period 1995–2019, 15–17 years children, a steady trend was identified for the gain in cerebral malignant neoplasms, diseases of the nervous system, blood, hematopoietic organs, and individual disorders involving the immune mechanism. The number of recorded malignant neoplasms of the brain in the adolescent contingent allows performing for the first time “case-control” analysis. Uncertainties in assessing the conditionality of the increase in the incidence in children under the influence of non-ionizing ICT electromagnetic radiation are associated with difficulties in determining personal doses. The limits of EMF exposure of the user’s head by a mobile device, which were developed in 1994, are now outdated and it is necessary to change the limits, as the devices and parameters of exposure to non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation of ICT have changed. It is necessary to confirm the reliability of the hygienic safety factor of EMF remote control in relation to children’s contingents in the conditions of modern and promising information and computer technologies, including taking into account possible synergy under the action of radio frequency EMF, optical screen radiation, sound effects and functional load. Obviously, today what is required is an integrated approach to ensuring the health of children “hygiene in the digital environment”. The article substantiates the foreign standards to affect the design and equipment for information and communication technologies of the educational environment in the Russian Federation, which is one of the important reasons for the deterioration of children’s health.

Gratitude. The author is grateful for participating in the discussion of the materials underlying the article, corresponding member RAS V.R. Kuchma, corresponding member RAS Yu.B. Zubarev, Doctor of Medical Sciences V.N. Nikitina and Scientific Secretary of the Russian National Committee for Protection against Non-Ionizing Radiation V.A. Alekseeva. 

Conflict of interest. The author declares no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgment. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: August 26, 2022 / Accepted: October 3, 2022 / Published: October 23, 2022 

About the authors

Oleg A. Grigoriev

National Research Center for the Safety of New Technologies

Author for correspondence.
Email: oa.grigoriev@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3712-2637

MD, PhD, DSci., Director for Research and Development (R&D), National Research Center for the Safety of New Technologies, Moscow, 109028, Russian Federation.

e-mail: oa.grigoriev@yandex.ru

Russian Federation

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