Study Targets Vatican RF in Leukemia Increase


For several years, residents of Cesano, Italy have argued that RF from the nearby Vatican Radio shortwave transmission site increased the number of leukemia and lymphoma cases in the community. The Vatican disagrees. A recent 300-page research report from a team at Milan's National Tumor Institute supports the residents' claims.

Do the shortwave signals really cause an increase in these cancers?

The article Vatican Radio: Still Making Waves in IEEE Spectrum casts some doubt on the study, by quoting University of Pennsylvania researcher Kenneth Foster.

"Doing an epidemiology study in a small area, dealing with a rare disease, is a mission impossible," said Foster.

Paola Michelozzi of the Local Health Authority in Rome reported an increase in childhood leukemia in the 60,000 people within 10 km of the Vatican antenna complex in an earlier study. Michelozzi told IEEE Spectrum she sees a reason why the data might be distorted.

"If you consider an area with a radius of more than 5 km, you include the suburbs of Rome, and then you include many other sources of exposure, such as low [-frequency] electromagnetic fields," said Michelozzi.

Radio World is also covering the story in its article Vatican Radio Fighting Charges That Towers Are Linked to Cancer Risk.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.