Electromagnetic radiation (emr) emitted by cell-phones continues to be associated with brain cancer, leukemia, eye tumors, headaches and other medical problems. Research is continuing World-wide but, in the meantime, recommendations are generally that cellphone users would be wise to minimize their exposure to this potential hazard.
Media Articles/Links
Daily Mail 26 February 2003 - Are mobiles bad for your skin? "Radiation from mobile phones could trigger skin allergies, according to alarming new findings. "
Daily Mail 26 February 2003 - Mobiles may trigger premature Alzheimer's "Radiation from mobile phones destroys brain cells and could lead to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease, according to research."
BBC News 5 February 2003 - Mobiles may trigger premature Alzheimer's "Researchers in Sweden have found that radiation from mobile phone handsets damages areas of the brain associated with learning, memory and movement. ."
The Observer 12 January 2003 - Mobiles phones blamed for sparrow deaths "The remarkable decline of the sparrow remains one of British wildlife's most enduring mysteries. ....Now scientists seeking to unravel the cause of their disappearance have identified a new culprit: the mobile phone. ."
The New Scientist 24 October 2002 - Cancer cell study revives cellphone safety fears "The safety of cellphones has been brought into question once again by research that suggests radio waves from the devices could promote the growth of tumours.. "
The Independent 6 October 2002 - Hidden menace or hollow scare? Mobiles get an X-ray ..........."With cigarettes it took years before it became accepted that they were a health hazard," he says. "With mobiles we can't afford to wait 30 years before we know if they are a hazard. "
The Daily Mail 2 July 2002 - How safe is your mobile? "Researchers have found conclusive evidence that mobile phone radiation causes biological changes in human cells. "
The Guardian 20 June2002 - Mobile phone radiation could alter brain cells, study suggests "Mobile phones could cause the brain's defences against toxins and infection to be weakened, a Finnish study has warned. "
The Daily Mail 20 June 2002 - Radiation from mobiles may lead to brain damage "Radiation from mobile phones may cause brain tissue damage, a two-year study has found. Scientists discovered that emissions from handsets affect the delicate make-up of cells in blood vessels, and could be a health hazard to regular users of the UK's 50million mobile phones. "
Reuters 19 June2002 - Mobile Phones Cause Human Cell Changes -- Study "A study by scientists in Finland has found that mobile phone radiation can cause changes in human cells that might affect the brainn "
New Scientist 19 June2002 - New mobile phone cancer link "Radiation from mobile phones might cause tumours by preventing cells from dying, according to new research in Finland. "
The Daily Mail 14 June 2002 - Our daughter died of a brain tumour. We blame her mobile "A teenage girl who spent hours talking on her mobile phone each day has died from a brain tumour................ Her parents are convinced her constant mobile phone use triggered the tumour that killed her. "
Reuters 24 May 2002 - China ponders tough mobile phone radiation law "China may impose the world's toughest mobile phone radiation standards due to fears of health risks, according to officials. "
BBC News 10 May 2002 - Verdict on mobile phone shields "Hands-free kits are the best way of protecting mobile phone users against potentially harmful radiation......."
New Scientist 6 February 2002 - Mobile phone emissions increase worm fertility "The safety of mobile phones is under fresh scrutiny following the discovery that their emissions have an unexpected effect on living creatures. The finding throws out the strongest challenge yet to the widely held belief that heating from mobile phone signals is their only potential threat to brain cells. "
The Independent 26 January 2002 - Doubt cast over benefit of radiation shields on mobile phones "Many of the gadgets sold as offering "shielding" from mobile phone radiation probably have little effect, according to the leader of a £7.4m government-funded research project into the potential health risks of phones.."
The Guardian 26 January 2002 - Young get phone health warning "Children were yesterday advised to keep their mobile phones away from their heads and laps as much as possible by scientists overseeing new research into potential dangers from radiation. "
The Guardian 25 January 2002 - Mobile phones safety fears "They're everywhere but nobody knows for sure if mobile phones are totally safe. The government today announced the latest attempt to find out with a multi million pounds research project"
The Guardian 25 January 2002 - Government funds mobile phone safety studies "......Four studies will investigate whether the use of mobile phones increases the risk of brain cancer or leukaemia. Others will look at the effect of mobile phone signals on brain function and examine how the body absorbs energy released by the devices............ "
Financial Times 24 January 2002 - Cell phone research looks for the authenticity "Their offices decontaminated after last year's anthrax attacks, Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and James Jeffords moved some staff back into their normal premises on Capitol Hill this week with another health issue on their agendas - research into the risk from mobile phones. "
Financial Times 14 November 2001 - Mobile phone industry braced for lawsuits "The mobile phone industry is expected to face a wave of health-related lawsuits in the US, with the first of dozens of cases to be filed in Washington DC today."
World Health Organisation October 2001 - Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health - Extremely low frequency fields and cancers ".....In June 2001, an expert scientific working group of IARC reviewed studies related to the carcinogenicity of static and ELF electric and magnetic fields. Using the standard IARC classification that weighs human, animal and laboratory evidence, ELF magnetic fields were classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans based on epidemiological studies of childhood leukaemia..... "
Silicon.com 30 October 2001 - 3G Hit by New Health Scares "Fears that 3G technology microwaves your brain may inflict further financial woe on the distressed telecommunications industry, according to a report."
The Daily Telegraph 5 September 2001 - Mobile Phones in New Brain Tumour Alert "USING a mobile telephone more than doubles the risk of developing brain cancer on the side of the head where the phone is held, the British Association festival of science was told yesterday...............The study into a link with brain tumours was carried out by Lennart Hardell, professor of oncology at Orebro University in Sweden, who compared 1,617 patients diagnosed with brain tumours between 1997 and last year with the same number of healthy people. He found that people who used cellphones were two and a half times more likely to have a temporal brain tumour on the side of the head where they held their phone. In the case of tumours of the auditory nerve, which connects the ear to the brain, the risk increased to more than three times for mobile phone users."
News of The World 26 August 2001 - Insurers Pull Plug on Mobile Dangers "Now companies confront further uncertainty as research fails to rule out links between mobile phone use and illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.....underwriters now fear the mobile phone industry could face massive lawsuits like those of the tobacco industry. "
Total Telecom 3 July 2001 - Germany to Double Budget for Mobile Radiation research "The German environment ministry has announced that current regulations on the prevention of potential health risks from wireless communications need to be strengthened. The ministry said it would double the research budget for the field, currently around DM2 million, annually over the next few years. "
The Daily Telegraph 29 June2001 - Children Ignoring Mobile Phone Dangers "....many teenagers appeared to be ignoring the message that mobile phone use could be harmful for them, even though the majority believed the research into mobile phone safety"
Total Telecom 25 June2001 - Italy's Strict Radiation Limits Threaten 3G Rollout "Italy's would-be 3G operators were left reeling on Saturday after the country's telecoms regulator said strict electro-magnetic radiation limits could make it illegal for them to build enough 3G antennas for nationwide coverage. "
The Financial Times 12 June 2001 - "The mobile phone industry is facing a sixth class-action lawsuit in the US over health concerns following the filing of a suit on behalf of the people of Georgia. " - See : Phone industry faces fresh suit on health
The Times 11 June2001 - Phone firms looked at radiation risks in 1993 - "THE major mobile phone companies were investigating ways of shielding against radiation as long ago as 1993, according to evidence unearthed by the Wireless Consumer Alliance.
A patent filed by Nokia in 1995 for a layer of shielding material between the antenna and the user says “it has been suggested” that mobile phone radiation could attack groups of myelin cells, those that insulate nerve fibres and allow electrical signals to be sent around the body. It adds that there are suggestions that a handset could, “in the worst case”, cause a glioma, a type of tumour on the side of the brain. "
The Times 11 June2001 - Mobile Firms Patent Cancer Shields - "THE world’s largest mobile telephone manufacturers have been patenting devices to reduce the risk of brain tumours among users while rejecting claims of any health hazards...........One application that Nokia has lodged with the United States Patent Office in Washington, and which has been seen by The Times, notes that “it has been suggested that” continuous exposure to radio frequency irradiation could lead “to a development of malignant tumour”. "
Wireless News Factor 7 June 2001 - Cell Phone-Cancer Connection Subject of New U.S. FDA Research - "...The industry study also suggested that cellular telephone users might be at greater risk of acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor of the auditory nerve. "
The Daily Telegraph 24 May 2001 - "Sending Text Messages May Damage Your Health"
The Guardian 10 May 2001 - Hooked-up Babes - "There are good reasons to be worried about children and mobile phones"
The Times 26 February 2001 - Hidden Menace of Radiation?
Financial Times 12 February 2001 - Tiny Metal Shield that brings Peace of Mind "A choke would considerably help stop radiation from going into the head. It is not rocket science. A ferrite choke is a terribly simple little thing."
Total Telecom 1 February 2001 - Mobile Health : Risky Business "....WELL ... ARE THEY DANGEROUS? It is thought that science will never be able to prove that mobile phones are completely safe. "
The Direction Générale de la Santé (French Health General Directorate) 18 January 2001- Summary (in English) of report entitled "Mobile Telephones, their Base Stations, and Health" - "......the group of experts recommend a risk management approach based on the precautionary principle, aimed at reducing public exposure to RF associated with mobile telephony to the lowest possible level compatible with service quality and justified by current scientific data."
The Guardian 13 January 2001 - "Could using a Mobile be More Dangerous than Smoking?"
Epidemiology Vol.12 January 2001 - Includes details of research into the possibility that eye tumours may be linked to mobile phone use. An abstract from the paper describing an association between radiofrequency radiation exposure and uveal melenoma may be found on the publisher's website .
BBC News 28 December 2000 - Huge Lawsuits Over Mobile Phones
Daily Express 11 December 2000 - "Mobile phone users receive far more radiation from their handsets than previously thought, according to a ground-breaking study. Researchers believe current methods of calculating mobile emissions substantially underestimate their effects on human tissue" (Referring to a study to be published in January in the academic journal Physics in Medicine and Biology)
Wireless News Factor 11 December 2000 - Study : Human Cells Amplify Wireless Phone Radiation
The Times 9 December 2000- Hands-free mobiles lose safety approval "...THE Government changed its advice yesterday on the use of hands-free kits with mobile phones, after suggestions that the devices could increase the exposure to microwave radiation. "
Daily Mail 9 December 2000 - "..some experts believe there could be damaging health effects at levels below international safety limits and a recent survey found huge variations in the radiation ratings for different makes of mobile."
BBC News 8 December 2000 - £7m for Mobile Health Research
Department of Health December 2000 - Leaflet on "Mobile Phones and Health"
BBC News 2 November 2000 - Hands-free phone safety questioned
Which?Online December 2000 - Update on Mobile Phones and Hands-free Kits
Department of Health December 2000 - Mobile Phone Base Stations and Health
New Scientist - "Give us a Ring" November 2000 "Using a hands-free earpiece with a mobile phone may channel more microwave radiation into your head than holding the phone up to your ear, according to tests announced last week by Britain's Consumers' Association. But the tests also found there might be a cheap and simple solution. The CA's tests found, however, that fitting a small ring of an iron-based compound called ferrite to the headset wire eradicated the extra radiation. "The ferrite choke acts as a high impedance to the wave and reflects it back down the cable," says Les Barclay, a member of the government's Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones. "
Which?Online November 2000 - "Hands-free Kit Concerns remain"
IEEE Spectrum (The Journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc) August 2000 - Are mobile phones safe? "Research intensifies as the public grows wary of one of its favorite communications tools ."
BBC News 8 August 2000 - Mobile users get mixed safety signals
Electronics Times 24 July 2000 "Mobiles'to get radiation warnings' Mobile phones could carry warnings on the amount of radiation they emit by the end of the year. Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson have been working together on developing a standard for measuring specific absorption rates (SAR), a measure of emitted radiation. The companies say there is 'no reason" why agreement on a standard cannot be reached before next year, and that some form of public information on SAR values - which could include labels on the phones themselves, information at point-of-sale and phones' menu systems - can be agreed by then too. Better public information on SAR values was advocated by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones and Health. In May it found there was no scientific evidence that microwave radiation from handsets and basestations is harmful below current guidelines."
World Health Organisation June 2000 - Revised Fact Sheet "Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health - Mobile Telephones and their Base Stations"
Consumers Association "Which?" Report April 2000 "there is currently no conclusive evidence that mobile phone radiation causes health problems including cancer or gene damage, but neither has it been given the all-clear………..International research is still going on, but, until conclusive evidence is available, users could limit their phone use if they are concerned about (cellular) radiation."
Consumers Association "Which?" testing hands-free kits April 2000 "The two models we tested triple radiation to the brain, though we still don’t know for certain whether that radiation is harmful to the brain"
Earthfiles - 14 May 2000 "British Cell Phone Safety Alert" and an interview with Robert O.Becker M.D.
Independant Expert Group on Mobile Phones - May 2000 The Stewart Report
Science News 12 February 2000 - "Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects"
Earthfiles - 5 February 2000 "Microwaves and Cell Phones - an Update"
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported in October 1999 "the available scientific evidence does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe, or that they are unsafe".
The Australian Consumers Association has advised "While there is no scientific proof that phone radiation can be harmful, neither is there proof that it is safe. If it turns out that there is a problem with electromagnetic emissions at mobile frequency ranges, then using a device that operated so close to you head is an obvious reason for concern. It would seem reasonable to take a few precautions until more is known about the potential risk. Mobile users should consider their usage patterns and habits to see what they can do to reduce their exposure".
U.S.Food and Drug Administration - Consumer Update on Mobile Phones(Oct1999)
Submission to The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee - (Stewart Fist 1999) - Mobile Phones and Health
Dr.Patrick Dixon "Global Change Guru" (Wall Street Journal)- Excellent site including much detail concerning radiation from mobile phones
Electric Words - Links to other cellphone and health sites
The Carlo Conversion Correspondence (Re Dr.George Carlo, previously Director of The Cellular Telephone Industry Association's health research program) "The main defender of the "cellphones are safe" line in pitched battle with the cellphone industry"
New Scientist - Get your head round this
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency - "The Mobile Phone System and Health Effects". Very informative site covering radiation from both mobile phones and also base station antennae.