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When a civic group claimed that a hand-held or neck-mounted portable fan emits dangerous levels of electromagnetic waves to the human body, the government officially announced yesterday (1st) that there was no problem as a result of the investigation.
Then, the civic group held a press conference again today and responded.
Reporter Ha Jung-yeon will tell you the details.
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'The portable fan is emitting electromagnetic waves that far exceed the standard for cancer risk' A civic group that made this claim with the results of its own investigation a week ago held a press conference again today.
When the government officially announced yesterday that 20 products sold on the market are harmless to the human body as a result of investigating them according to international standards, they responded within a day.
When the government took issue with the inaccuracy of the instrument used by the group, it came up with a new instrument this time.
[Choi Ye-yong/Director of Citizens' Center for Environment and Health: When the Ministry of Science and Technology measured its own measurements again, a very high level of electromagnetic waves was confirmed from the wooden fan and the hand fan...
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Re-measured with this instrument and claimed that only 2 products out of 33 products detected safe level electromagnetic waves.
A government official countered that the instrument used this time also did not meet the international standard and was not reliable.
The reason why these workshops are repeated is not because of a problem with the measuring instrument, but because the standard values of electromagnetic waves that both sides consider to be harmful are different.
The group argues that electromagnetic waves above this level are possible carcinogens based on the research results that 'Electromagnetic waves above 4mG increase the incidence of leukemia in children' cited by the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the World Health Organization.
On the other hand, the government is applying mutatis mutandis 833mG, which is the standard value of the international organization that establishes electromagnetic wave protection standards, and the group's claim is excessive.
[National Radio Research Agency official: The standards for human protection of international organizations were made in consideration of both long-term and short-term effects.
There must be some long-term impact, but research doesn't seem to do that.]
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Even experts have mixed views on the risk threshold.
[Baek Jeong-gi/Professor, Chungnam National University: I didn't quote it there because it has public credibility.
So, it is not reflected in the standards.]
[Park Dong-wook/Professor, Korea National Open University: Exposure period, method of use, and who uses it.
Children, pregnant women and fetuses are very sensitive.
You shouldn't say it's safe.]
The group urged the Ministry of Science, Technology and Information and Communication, as well as the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Welfare, to set up a forum to discuss safety issues.
(Video coverage: Park Hyun-chul, video editing: Kim Jun-hee)