Long-term research shows no health effects from mobiles

A large British research program spanning eleven years has found no evidence of adverse effects on people's health from the use of mobile technology.

The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) second report summarises and discusses the research done as part of the government funded program since 2007, under the auspices of an independent management committee.

None of the studies presented in the current report and an earlier draft in 2007 "suggest that exposure to mobile phone signals is associated with an increased risk of cancer," the report authors claim.

No evidence was found that that using mobile phones increased the risk of leukaemia, or that cellular base stations emissions during pregnancy boosted the risk of developing cancer in early childhood.

Other tests showed that people are unlikely to feel electromagnetic fields, or so-called electrical hypersensitivity.

Source: MTHR

The studies also found that electromagnetic fields associated with mobile devices are relatively small, especially when compared to other appliances that people hold near the heads such as hair dryers and electric razors.

"When the MTHR programme was first set up, there were many scientific uncertainties about possible health risks from mobile phones and related technology. This independent programme is now complete, and despite exhaustive research, we have found no evidence of risks to health from the radio waves produced by mobile phones or their base stations," said the chairman of the MTHR, professor David Coggon.

Some 31 individual research projects over eleven years were funded by the MTHR, which was set up in 2001 to address public concerns over the possible health effects arising from mobile technology.

These resulted in almost sixty papers being published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.