Mobile
Phone Firms 'Fudging Safety Issues'
Network News
Journalist: Paul Allen
December 07, 2000
The mobile
phone industry has been accused by a top academic of deliberately clouding
safety issues over radiation emissions from handsets.
Fresh
research published in leading medical journal, The Lancet, says not only is
the level of risk unclear, but that mobile operators are using uncertainty to
confuse buyers.
Dr Gerald
Hyland of the University of Warwick wrote: "In March 1999 the government
set up the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, under the chairmanship
of Sir William Stewart.
"The
Stewart Report, published in May 2000, makes some sensible recommendations but
unfortunately some of its greyer areas are now being exploited by the industry
to obfuscate the issue."
Furthermore,
companies which issue staff with mobile phones could leave themselves open to
lawsuits if employees are affected by emissions, and the Association of
British Insurers has warned that employers liability insurance could be
affected.
The
Department of Health is working on a leaflet warning users of the possible
risks, which will be published within a fortnight. It is also setting up a
taskforce to co-ordinate research in the area.
Medical
physicist Philip Dendy, who also contributes to The Lancet, said: "In the
light of experience with ionising radiation and radioactive materials,
out-of-hand dismissal of the possibility of subtle effects of low-intensity,
pulsed, microwave radiation is most unwise.
"As yet
unresolved is the question of adverse health impacts provoked by the
contentious non-thermal effects of the low intensity, pulsed microwave
radiation used.
"These
effects are not taken into account in current guidelines, which simply
restrict the intensity of the radiation to prevent tissue heating in excess of
what the body's thermoregulatory mechanism can cope with."
A
representative for the National Radiological Protection Board, which advises
the Department of Health on all radiation issues, explained that its advisory
board of independent epidemiologists would consider all fresh research at its
next meeting.
