INTRODUCTION

The Commission is charged with promoting research and development in the following domains :

(a) physical interactions of electromagnetic fields with biological systems;

(b) biological effects of electromagnetic fields;

(c) interaction mechanisms;

(d) human exposure assessment;

(e) experimental exposure systems;

(f) medical applications.

The Commission emphasizes its interdisciplinary character and fosters research co-operation among various disciplines.

Considerable progress has been made in fulfilling these objectives during the 1996-99 triennium. This report shall spotlight some of the major activities in the areas of research initiatives, conference organization and sponsorship, international cooperation, young scientists awards, publications, and participation in organizing the Centennial General Assembly in Toronto, Canada.

RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Mobile and Personal Communications and the Health and Safety of Radiofrequency Radiation

The advent of wireless communication service has delivered mobile and personal telecommunication to vast segments of the world's population. The wide spread impact of this new technology has raised concerns about the safety of human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) energy emitted by these telecommunication devices. A better understanding of the biological effects of RF electromagnetic field is needed to safeguard the general population against possible harm. Within the last few years there has been a resurgence of research interest in achieving a quantitative understanding of the relationships between the biological effects of RF radiation and the physical variables that may cause them.

At sufficiently high power levels RF radiation can produce deleterious thermal effects. Wireless telecommunication systems use low power modulated forms of RF radiation that was not investigated extensively in the past. Specific questions must be answered before any consistent, dependable and scientific conclusions can be drawn for the biological effects and safety of wireless mobile and personal telecommunication systems. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that available data do not suggest any immediate cause for concern of a impending threat to public health from acute or short term exposure to low level RF radiation. A critical need is the investigation of effects of long term or repeated exposure over extended periods of time.

URSI and its Commission (K) on Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine recognize the problem, the scientific uncertainty, and that there is public concern about health effects of all RF systems and have adopted specific resolutions. The objectives of the resolutions are to stimulate domestic research, encourage international cooperation, and to provide coordination, if necessary.

Accordingly, it is recommended that broadly based research programs be established nationally and internationally to address the following key questions:

1. What are the interaction mechanisms with living systems, especially weak electromagnetic fields of various characteristics;
2. What biological effects - and particularly potentially harmful effects - are caused, and under what exposure conditions;
3. How to evaluate the exposures through proper measurements and dosimetric modeling.

Furthermore, it is noted that there is now increasing evidence that electromagnetic fields from wireless communication devices may affect the operation of some medical devices - either implanted or connected to the human body - and as a result may pose a problem to the operation and health; URSI and Commission K recommend accelerated scientific and industrial research to ensure the safety of medical devices in the presence of electromagnetic fields. Specifically, studies are to be aimed at clarifying (a) the specific behavior of implanted equipment; (b) the characteristic of connected medical equipment; (c) modeling methods; (d) specific measurements; and (e) influence of the person on electromagnetic interference (EMI).

To ensure that these global research programs respond to local environmental concerns and societal goals, URSI encourages each member Committee and Commission K to actively promote research in their territory and to urge appropriate authorities to create research centers devoted to electromagnetics in biology and medicine. Few country has the resources capable of sustaining a large scale research program, let alone linking it to the rest of the world.

URSI, as an international organization with a long-standing interest and has fostered the development of this scientific area for many years, is committed to providing the platform for cooperative research, exchange of data, and the sharing of knowledge. The research effort of national commissions will be connected to the global effort by the URSI Commission to facilitate this process and to provide knowledgeable scientific expertise in each member committee, well coupled to the-state-of-knowledge in the global community.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION AND SPONSORSHIP

A. Organization of the 3rd International Scientific Meeting on Electromagnetics in Medicine, Mode B, November 3-5, 1997 (Radio Science Bulletin, No. 284, 1999, pp19-20)

This meeting was the third Scientific Meeting on Microwaves in Medicine. In the tradition of past meetings, this Scientific Meeting was organized by Commission K) with the cooperation of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) through its Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S).

After observing the technology changes and receiving many feedbacks from attendees of the 2nd meeting and the 25th URSI General Assembly, we have decided to expand the meeting to cover both low and high frequencies instead of microwaves only. To reflect this expansion of the meeting's scope, we changed the name of the Scientific Meeting.

General information regarding the Third International Scientific Meeting on Electromagnetics in Medicine was available on our WWW site.

The technical program was designed to render a broad coverage of the recent advances in the field of electromagnetics in medicine. A coordinated, single session format provided a comprehensive well-balanced scientific program. The International Scientific Meeting had become an outstanding forum for interdisciplinary discussion on key issues in research and technological development. It provided an opportunity to hear many interesting and challenging papers and learn a wide spectrum of new technologies and applications.

The meeting had a total of 76 attendees that include 21 students. The quality of presentations and level of discussions were very high. All scheduled speakers (with the rare exception of two) showed up including Russian scientists.

The technical program covered three full days. A single session format was adopted to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue. Sessions began on Monday morning and run through Wednesday afternoon . An invited lecture started the meeting at 9:00 am each morning on a topic of emerging interest. It was followed by sessions with six contributed papers each. Refreshments was available both mid-morning and mid-afternoon. The last session on Tuesday afternoon was a laboratory tours arranged for the benefit of registered participants and their guests.

Some of the papers (13 in toto) presented at the Third Scientific Meeting were published as a collection in Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics, vol. 47, December, 1998

The organizers would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the generous financial and material support of the International Union of Radio Science, the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, the Motorola Corporation, the College of Engineering and the Department of Electrica.l Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and lastly the committee members and authors. Their collective effort has allowed this Scientific Meeting to become a reality.

B. Sponsorship of International Conferences and Symposia

One of the most rewarding undertaking of Commission K was the co-sponsorship of 11 conferences and symposius: 5 scheduled Mode B meetings (with financial support) and 6 Mode A meetings (with no financial support). A chronological listing of these with references to articles reporting on them in the Radio Science Bulletin where appropriate is given below.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

In addition to the Commission K efforts in cooperation with many other scientific, health, and engineering organizations mentioned above, it had also made a proposition for cooperation to the World Health Organization (WHO) between 1997 and 98. However, to date, the neither Commission K or URSI has received any response from WHO.

YOUNG SCIENTISTS PROGRAM

A salient aspect of URSI activity is the Young Scientists Award and support of recipients to attend the Triennial General Assemblies. This year, 13 awards are selected from a total of 21 applications through Commission K. Our congratulations to the young scientists.

REVIEW OF RADIO SCIENCE

In correspondence of the General Assembly a book reviewing the developments of Radio Science related to the triennium and a disk reporting the international literature published in the triennium are edited.

The triennial URSI "Review of Radio Science" is published by the Oxford University Press. The book is divided into sections edited by the Vice-Chair of each URSI Commission. The Commission K section is edited by Professor Shoogo Ueno of Tokyo University. There are 5 chapters in the K section. The titles and the authors of these chapters are:

DISK OF REFERENCES

Commission K is participating in the effort to produce a diskette of references to archival publications during 1996-99. The Commission K portion of the disk is edited by Professor Masao Taki of the Tokyo Metropolitan University. Assistance was solicited from the Official Members of Commission K. The final list of 643 references included in the K section consist of suggestions from official members and references selected from journals and other archival publications. Although the disk is not intended to be an exhaustive bibliography for the years covered, it gives a broad representation of the international literature published during the triennium.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

A major function of the commission is the development of an international scientific program at the triennial general assembly. Commission K has scheduled a record number of 137 platform and poster presentations at the General Assembly in Toronto. Specifically, they include one tutorial lecture, 78 platform and 58 poster presentations divided into 8 oral sessions and 5 poster sessions. Four of the sessions are organized jointly with Commissions A, B, C, and E. A brief listing of the program is given below.

Tutorial Lecture

"The Biology and Epidemiology of Human Exposure to Power Line Electromagnetic Fields." Russel Reiter , USA

Platform Sessions

K1 Mechanisms and Modeling of Electromagnetic Interaction with Biological Systems

Co-convenors: C. Polk (USA) and G. D'Inzeo. (Italy)

K2 Biological Effects of Electromagnetics Fields

Co-convenors: L.Kheifets (USA) and R. Korenstein (Israel)

K3 Hazard Assessment for Wireless Communication

Co-convenors: P. Bernardi (Italy) and B. Veyret (France)

K4 Biomedical Applications of Electromagnetic Fields and Waves

Co-convenors: C. Gabriel (UK) and S. Ueno (Japan)

Joint Sessions

KA Exposure Assessment for Cellular and Personal Telecommunications

Co-convenors: C. Chou (USA) and M. Taki (Japan)

KB Computation of Electromagnetic Fields in the Human Body

Co-convenors: O. Gandhi (USA) and Y. Rahmat-Samii (USA)

KC Health Effects of Mobile Telephones

Co-convenors: R. Adey (USA) and N. Kuster (Switzerland)

KE Electromagnetic Interference with Medical Devices

Co-convenors: D. Witters (USA) and O. Fujiwara (Japan)

FINALLY

It has been a busy triennium for Commission K during which it had seen considerable progress in our field of radio science. Commission K had cooperated with many other scientific and engineering organizations in presenting its programs. I believe its active involvement demonstrates the maturity of this young commission, born during the last decade of the 20th Century. I appreciate the opportunity to serve the commission, URSI and radio science.

Chairman of Commission K

James C. Lin