UK
Government Hedges Its Bets With Mobile Phone Advice
siliconcom
December 08, 2000
The
UK government has advised consumers to cut down their mobile phone use for
fear of health risks being identified in the future.
The
Department of Health (DoH) issued two leaflets today - one covering base
stations and one on mobile phones that advises a "precautionary
approach". Parents are urged to limit mobile use by children aged under
16, and adults are advised to keep calls short and to purchase phones with
relatively low specific absorption rate (SAR) values.
The
government said that although the balance of current research suggests that
base stations and mobiles do not pose a health risk, there are "signficant
gaps in our scientific knowledge."
Liam
Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, admitted the advice is not as clear as
he would like, but said: "We are keen to share what we know with the
public, even when there is uncertainty.
"I think
it wouldn't be difficult for people to moderate their phone use if they want
to cut down their exposure to something that, at this stage, we don't know
whether or not causes harm.
"If
people want to change their own behaviour to be a bit more precautionary, then
they can cut down the length of calls and perhaps not make some of the calls
on a mobile phone that they do."
Donaldson
added that he would like to see his own staff limit their mobile phone use for
the time being.
The
Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) called the government's advice
"puzzling" and reminded consumers that there is no established
health risk from either mobile phones or base stations.
However,
Telecoms firms and the DoH are set to invest £7m into jointly researching the
link between health, mobile phones, and base stations.
The
Radiocommunications Agency will also lead a nationwide audit of mobile phone
base stations.
The DoH
expects to see results from its research programme in two to three years and a
standardised approach to measuring SAR values is scheduled to be in place by
early next year which will allow concerned consumers to buy phones with the
lowest emission levels. An SAR labelling system is already in place in the US.
