ความชุกและปัจจัยที่มีความสัมพันธ์กับอาการที่ไม่จำเพาะเจาะจงของทหารสื่อสารที่ทำงานอยู่ใกล้และไกลเสาส่งสัญญาณโทรทัศน์แห่งหนึ่ง / พุทธิชัย แดงสวัสดิ์ = Prevalence and associated factors of non-specific health symptoms among signal corps personnel working near and far away from a television tower / Puttichai Daengsawat
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of non-specific health symptoms among signal corps personnel working near and far away from a television tower. This study was conducted in June, 2016 among the non-randomly selected 339 and 283 signal corps positioned near and far away from a television tower respectively. Results showed that the power density at a frequency range of a television tower (average) and of all frequency range (integrate) measured near and far away from the television tower were 0.00020-0.67310 and 0.00011-0.00115 W/m2 and 2.79- 4062.65 and 17.48-1370.16 µW/m2, respectively. These measured densities did not exceed the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) standard values for workers who involve with electromagnetic wave or general public. The prevalence of non-specific health symptoms in both groups were 7.9% and 6.4%, respectively. Fatigue was the most frequent reported symptom in both groups (52.51% and 42.40% respectively), followed by lower back pain and neck sprain. Factors related to non-specific health symptoms were gender, income, presence of allergy, family history of disease, giving opinions about tv tower settlement and cigarette smoking. In addition, with other factors being controlled, our result suggested that average power density, integrate power density, and distance were not correlated to the risk of having non-specific health symptoms. In conclusion, further studies with more refinement on the individuals’ electromagnetic exposure assessment are needed to confirm or obviate the possible health impact of the electromagnetic radiation from television tower
