Brief history

Before 1999 there was no agency, organism or institution in Spain whatsoever to undertake –from the scientific method perspective- the study and disseminate knowledge of the possible effects of radio frequencies on health. That year, Dr Francisco Vargas, sub-director of Environmental and Labour Health at the Ministry of Health and Science, brought a group of lecturers and researchers together and created the Committee of Experts on Non-Ionising Radiations (NIR), coinciding with the publication of the Recommendation of the EU Council of Health Ministers to protect the public from NIR.

The mission of this committee of experts was to advise the Ministry of Health and Science and other institutions on protection strategies for the public from environmental NIRs in the Hz-GHz range, by conducting a critical review of the scientific evidence and drawing up a document with conclusions and recommendations to control and limit exposure of the public.

The Committee, which comprised nine independent experts from different public institutions (two physicists, two engineers, two medical doctors, a biologist, a biophysicist and an epidemiologist), carried out laudable, unselfish work for 20 months.

Between 2002 and 2003, Dr. Francisco Vargas was replaced by Dr Francisco Marqués as the chairperson of the Committee of Independent Experts (CEI in its Spanish acronym) and one of the engineers left, to be replaced by an epidemiologist, but the mission continued to consist of reviewing the recent evidence and of drawing conclusions and making recommendations.

Early in 2004 the CEI was dissolved; it had achieved its goals of assessment and information, but a continuation of its work was necessary: Spain needed a committee of experts on NIR protection to act as a local benchmark and an international interlocutor, to periodically review and interpret recent evidence, to propose protection strategies for the public based on its conclusions with regard to current and emerging exposure, and to propose research strategies and report to institutions and authorities.

Such a committee should generate trust among citizens and institutions; be multidisciplinary and balanced in areas of knowledge; be dependent on a public body to which it would report; have human and material resources; and be available for other local, state or supranational organisms to consult it.

Finally, in July 2005 the Fundación General of the Complutense University of Madrid took the step of collaborating in the task of evaluating the effects of electromagnetic fields and created the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequencies and Health (CCARS).