10

Commission K - ELECTROMAGNETICS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Chair : Professor S. Ueno (Japan)
Vice-Chair : Professor B. Veyret (France)

The Commission held one Open Commission meeting, on Tuesday 19^th August 2002 at 6 p.m. It was attended by a about 50 delegates and members. The approved agenda was the following:

Introduction
Election of Vice Chair for 2002-2005
GA 2002 Organization and Program
Session proposals for GA 2005
Report on K articles in Radio Science Bulletin
Scientific Committee on Telecommunications (SCT) (interaction between Commission K and WHO)
Intercommission Working Group on Solar Power Satellite lead by Commission H
Other business

1. Election of a Vice-Chair

Three candidates had been nominated for the position of Vice-Chair for the next triennium : F. Prato (Canada), K. Hansson Mild (Sweden) and G. D’Inzeo (Italy). At the business meeting, any Official Member who was present and had previously voted was given the opportunity to change his vote, and any Member who had not voted was allowed to do so. In the ballot, 35 votes were cast, resulting in the submission to the Council of the following two names, in order of preference:

1. F. Prato

2. G.D’Inzeo

2. Terms of Reference

The following Terms of Reference were not modified.

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 emphasises its interdisciplinary character and fosters research co-operation among various disciplines.

3. Review of Radio Science

The Commission K Editor of the Review of Radio Science for the last triennium, Bernard Veyret reported on the procedure he had used to select the topics and authors of the Commission K chapters. The result was good reviews of important topics.

The incoming Commission K editor is F. Prato.

4. Inter-Commission Working Groups

There is only one Joint Working Group KE : EMI with Medical Equipment (Co-Chair for Commission E : S. Alfas, Denmark), which was not discussed further.

5. 2004 Symposium

A Symposium on topics to be announced will be organised by B. Veyret in Bordeaux, France, in the Spring of 2004.

6. Commission K Programme in Maastricht

The Chair initiated a discussion on the Commission K Programme in Maastricht. The technical contents of the sessions were considered to be well balanced between the Commission sessions and the joint sessions organised with other Commissions (see list below).

7. SCT

B. Veyret will be Commission K’s member of SCT, as a liaison with WHO.

8. Vote of Thanks

There was a vote of thanks for Prof. S. Ueno who had worked hard during the last triennium.

Scientific programme

Commission K organised six scientific sessions, namely:

K1: Mechanisms & modelling of electromagnetic interaction with biological systems

F. Barnes (USA) and G. d’Inzeo (Italy)

K2: Biological effects of electromagnetic fields

L. Anderson (USA) and T. Shigemitsu (Japan)

K3: Hazard assessment for wireless communication

B. Veyret (France) and M. Taki (Japan)

K4: Biomedical applications of electromagnetic fields and waves

J. Lin (USA) and C. Gabriel (UK)

K5: Epidemiology of exposure to environmental electromagnetic fields

R. de Seze (France) and N. Yamaguchi (Japan)

K6: Topics in biomagnetics

S. Ueno (Japan} and B. Veyret (France)

Commission K further participated in four joint sessions.

KA: Exposure Assessment For Cellular And Personal Telecommunications

N. Kuster (K, Switzerland) and Q. Balzano (A, Italy)

KB: COMPUTATION OF ELECTROMAGENTIC FIELDS IN THE HUMAN BODY

O. Gandhi (K, USA) and M. Okoniewski (B, Canada)

KC: HEALTH EFFECTS OF MOBILE TELEPHONES

M. Taki (K, Japan) and G. Neubauer (C, Austria)

KE: Electromagnetic Interference with Medical Devices

T. Nojima (K,Japan) and Michael R. Murphy (USA)