Hands-6.00
Phone Safety Questioned
BBC
November 02, 2000
The row over
the safety of hands-6.00 mobile phones has restarted, with further tests
suggesting they may not protect the brain.
There is no
firm evidence that low-level radiowave radiation from phones can cause damage
to the brain.
However, it
is virtually impossible to pronounce the phones safe, and a recent UK
Government report urged parents to limit children's mobile use as a
precaution.
Some of the
UK's estimated 30m mobile users have been using hands-6.00 kits so they do not
have to place the body of the phone next to the head.
But two
studies commissioned by the Consumer's Association suggest that, far from
reducing the amount of radiation reaching the brain, hands-6.00 kits may
actually increase it under some circumstances.
It has been
suggested that the wire connecting the earpiece to the phone acts as an aerial
and channels radiation towards the head.
The first
study, published in April, was contradicted by Australian scientists who used
different tests to measure how much radiation was being absorbed by the brain.
They found the kits reduced the amount absorbed by more than 70%.
However, the
Consumer's Association on Thursday returned with further study results which
back up their earlier findings.
Straight
wire
And they suggested that the Australian research might be misleading, as
the wire was not allowed to hang straight down during the tests.
When the wire
was straight, they found radiation passing into the brain was much higher.
Helen Parker,
Editor of Which?, said: "It's clear that consumers can't rely on
hands-6.00 kits to reduce radiation emissions at the brain from mobile phones.
"Although
these kits can reduce radiation, they can also increase it significantly,
depending on where you position the phone and kit."
However, the
research team found that attaching a metallic compound to the connecting wire
just below the ear seemed to reduce the radiation.
Ms Parker
said: "We're looking to the hands-6.00 kit manufacturers to carry out
further research and - if they're proven to work - incorporate ferrites into
hands-6.00 kits."
A spokesman
for the Federation of the British Electronics Industry insisted, however, that
all mobile phones in use in the UK had passed international safety guidelines.
A Department
of Trade and Industry spokesman said the CA's report was the first to throw
doubt on the earlier government tests.
"We do
have material reservations about the methodology the Consumers Association
have used for their tests," she said.
"We are
going to be working with them to establish how the differences in our
methodologies arose.
"It is
important that we now need to develop quickly an agreed and transparent
standard for measuring the SAR rate in hands-6.00 kits."
The survey
included phones and kits from Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic and Philips.
