A Comparative Study on the Health Impact of Radiation on Residents close to Mobile Phone Base-stations in Lagos, Nigeria

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The increase in public concern in the use of wireless technologies emitting radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation has been the subject of recent interest and study. The aim of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the effect of this radiation on the health related quality of life of residentials close to these base stations. METHODS: This is a comparative study, carried out in six communities with base-stations (BS) in the 3 senatorial districts in Lagos, Nigeria. Respondents were adults grouped into, group A (those living ≤150m from a BS) and group B (those living 150m from a BS). Data collection was via the use of a validated interviewer based questionnaire, for information on socio-demographics characteristics, subjective symptoms, while a WHO tool, short form health survey questionnaire (SF-36) consisting of eight scales, was also used to assess their health quality of life. RESULTS:Analysis showed that there was no difference in the socio-demographic characteristics across the two groups. The mean age of respondents was 44.4 ±15.8 years, with 65% within 30-39 age group. Most were females (57.4%), and 60.3% were married. 41.16% and 32.9% had secondary and tertiary education, respectively. Most were into trading (37.2%) while 50.5% of respondents earned below the national minimum wage of ₦30,000. Out of the eight scales, emotional wellbeing/mental health was found significant after carrying out a bivariate analysis (p-value 0.05), while multivariate analysis showed (95% C.I = 1.05 – 8.30) after adjusting for confounders. Analysis of the different subjective-symptoms showed no significance across the two groups. CONCLUSIONS:The study concludes that there is some association between emotional wellbeing/mental health and siting of base stations close to residentials. Therefore, it recommends health/safety awareness, to calm these residentials, as well as application of the precautionary principles while additional research is being carried out on their public health safety. KEYWORDS: non-ionizing-radiation, Base-stations, Exposure, Symptoms, environmental-epidemiology, mental health outcomes.