Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) | Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM)

Mobile Phones, Base Station and Health

By 2020, we expect that nearly everything will be connected, with an estimated 50 billion connected devices, things and objects supporting almost every aspect of our daily lives. ITU, October 2015

So how safe are wireless devices and the networks that connect them?

Radio frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) is a non-ionising radiation that cannot disrupt the structure of biological material. It lacks the energy to break the chemical bonds within molecules, thus it cannot cause ionisation in the human body. It causes some heating effect, but usually not enough to cause any kind of long-term damage to tissues

Research on EMF

Extensive research has been performed to investigate whether mobile phones and base stations pose a potential health risk, including in Malaysia. All reviews conducted so far have indicated that exposures below the limits recommended in the ICNIRP EMF guidelines, covering the full frequency range from 0-300 GHz, do not produce any known adverse health effect. However, there are still gaps in knowledge that requires further research before long-term health risk assessments can be made.

Mobile Phone & Health
A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use. - WHO

Base Station & Health
Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects. - WHO

The report covers different areas of EMF and different types of studies such as biological, human and epidemiological studies. No new established causal relationships between EMF exposure and health risks have been identified. - SSM, April 2020

Overall, the epidemiological studies on mobile phone RF EMF exposure do not show an increased risk of brain tumours. Furthermore, they do not indicate an increased risk for other cancers of the head and neck region. - SCENIHR, January 2015

A multicenter case–control study conducted in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland that includes all children and adolescents aged 7–19 years found little or no evidence that mobile phones increase brain tumor risk. – CEFALO Study, July 2011

The 10-year study, carried out in 13 countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and UK) has found no conclusive increase in brain tumors. – Interphone Study, May 2010

No convincing links between exposure to low-level EMFs and damage to health have been found. - EC, January 2006

The balance of evidence indicates that there is no general risk to the health of people living near to base stations on the basis that exposures are expected to be small fractions of international guidelines. – Steward Report, May 2000

MCMC has conducted several research on EMF in collaboration with local universities.

University	Research	Findings
University of Technology Malaysia \| University of Putra Malaysia \| Malaysian Nuclear Agency (MNA) \| Malaysia Genome and Vaccine Institute (MGVI)	2025 Study on the Biological Impact of Exposure to 5G Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field in the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz	The study found that blood results remained within normal limits. Some changes were observed in tissue, behaviour and cellular activity, but there is no conclusive evidence that these were caused by 5G RF-EMF exposure. Further research is needed to better understand the findings and their relevance to human health.
University of Malaysia Perlis	2021 Effects of Short-Term 5G (700 MHz, 3.5 GHz, 28 GHz) Base Station Signal Exposure on Cognitive Performance, Well Being, Physiological Parameters and Electroencephalography (EEG) of the Malaysian Adults	There were no significant effects of short-term radiation exposure emitted from the 5G base station antenna signals on Malaysian adults regarding EMF perception, cognitive performance, well-being, EEG, and physiological parameters. [UniMAP]
University of Malaysia Perlis University of Malaysia Perlis University of Malaysia Kelantan	2015 - 2016 Effects of Short-Term LTE (850, 1800, 2600 MHz) Base Station Signal Exposure on Cognitive Performance, Well Being, Physiological Parameters and Electroencephalography (EEG) of the Malaysian Children A Study on the Biological Effects of LTE (850, 1800, 2600 MHz) Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Exposures.	There is no significant difference between the exposure to the Short-term LTE base station signals and Sham exposure towards EMF perception, EEG response, cognitive performance, well-being, physiological parameters (P’s > 0.05) of the Malaysian Children. [UniMAP] The findings found no strong evidence that chronic exposure to 4G LTE 850, 1800 and 2600 MHz had any effect on blood cells. The results also showed that chronic exposure to 4G LTE did not induce DNA damage and did not cause cancer.[UniMAP, UMK]
University of Technology Malaysia	2015 Remote EMF Monitoring System through Wireless Industry Emission (WIE) Laboratory Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Measurement Systems for the Test and Certification of Mobile Telecommunication Equipment.	The measured EMF radiation levels are significantly below the reference limit. Specifically 90% of the stations in Malaysia have been measuring electric field strength values below 3 V/m in peak.
University of Malaya	2014 Risk Communication Research for Electromagnetic Field (EMF) from Radio Frequency (RF)	Public’s anxiety of RF-EMF is heavily influenced by media, personality and psychology. Statistics shows that public knowledge with regard to RF-EMF and its risk are still low, hence, their views are easily manipulated by media.[UM]
University of Malaysia Perlis	2013 Effects of Short-term GSM and UMTS Base Station Signal Exposure on Cognitive Performance, Well-being and Physiological Parameters of the Malaysian People	There were no significant effects of Short-term GSM and UMTS base station signal exposure on cognitive performance, well-being and physiological parameters of the Malaysian people. [UniMAP]