UK
Hands6.00 Mobiles Lose Safety Approval
Newsbytes
Journalist: Sylvia Dennis
December 11, 2000
The British
government has removed its recommendation that mobile phone users switch to
hands6.00 units when using their wireless phones, opting instead to start
issuing leaflets warning buyers of the unknown, but potentially harmful
impact, of mobile phone usage by children.
The warning
leaflets, which will go out to mobile phone retailers in the next few weeks,
follow the British government's continuing funding of tests into the effects
of mobile phone radio frequency (RF) radiation on the soft tissue of the brain
and head.
The
government says that it is now undertaking a $10.5 million research program
into the effects of mobile phones on users' health, and has opted for the
distribution of safety leaflets to wireless outlets in the next few weeks,
warning parents and other parties about the possible harmful effects of mobile
phones on children.
Liam
Donaldson, the UK's chief medical officer, said that the government's decision
to remove the health approval on hands6.00 kits followed a number of
investigations that claim hands6.00 devices may even channel radiation to the
users head.
"We
don't have good enough science so far to say definitely one way or the
other," he said, adding that further research is being conducted urgently
to provide an answer to the question.
Donaldson's
decision to issue mobile phone safety leaflets to retailers is a complete
u-turn on the issue of mobile phone health issues since the summer.
In August,
the government said that, despite a damning Consumers Association (CA) report
in April that said hands6.00 kits for mobile phones were unsafe, its early
research had come out with a report giving them a clean bill of health.
At the time,
Patricia Hewitt, the British e-minister, shied away from naming the CA report
specifically, noting that the government report has concluded that using
personal hands6.00 (PHF) kits with mobile phones will reduce exposure to
electromagnetic fields.
"Today's
report confirms that hands-6.00 kits reduce exposure for mobile phone
users," she said, adding that it is important that the public is provided
with clear and unambiguous advice about the use of hands6.00 kits.
Research for
the summer study was conducted by SARtest, which was commissioned by the UK's
Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) to carry out tests on PHF kits.
The British
government's Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones and Health (IEGMP),
meanwhile, noted at the time that other studies have been carried out which
claim a substantial reduction in exposure when using PHF kits, but recommended
further work.
SARTest said
that all measurements taken of the phones themselves were comfortably within
exposure guidelines of the National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) and the
International Commission on Non- Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
The research
company, however, added that undertaking the tests does not suggest any
problem of compliance with the guidelines.
