Long-term mobile phone use remains a concern

A report issued, Wednesday 12^th September, by the Mobile Telecommunications & Health Research (MTHR) Programme management committee continues to suggest that further research is required into the potential long-term health effects of mobile phone use.

Although the authors of the report, which includes Chairman, Professor Lawrie Challis, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham, say they have found no evidence, so far, that exposure increases the risk of cancer, it is still too early to say for sure.

The Report concludes that no evidence has been found that radiofrequency (RF) fields affect brain function and so they recommend that no further research in this area, on adults, is required “at the present time”.

In respect of electrical hypersensitivity to mobile phone masts and the emergency service ‘TETRA’ radios, again no evidence was found to link the symptoms reported by some people to the use of this equipment. However, the authors recognise that concerns remain and, therefore, the MTHR will be supporting additional work in this area in the second part of its programme.

The research found no evidence of some of the cellular effects reported in the previous Stewart Report, and the authors have concluded the effects were probably due to heating rather than biological mechanisms. Further support for research in this area will only occur if convincing new evidence emerges.

The study of the possible health effects of base stations has been acknowledged as difficult to conduct, and new technology and techniques have been developed to try to overcome these problems. While the MTHR are not planning to support additional research they are aware of other research in other parts of the world and will keep a watching brief on that work.

One of the important findings in the report is that the penetration of precautionary advice to the public has been poor, and that alternative methods of communicating potential risks are needed and that more research, on communicating risk, is required.

The research also covered the use of mobile phones whilst driving and, although no evidence was found to demonstrate that it was more distracting than other in-car distractions, it concluded that it did suggest that greater cognitive resources were called upon.

Overall, the authors have stated that there are gaps in our knowledge of the effects and that it is still too early to say whether the use of mobile phones could lead to cancer or other diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.