Subject: More from the UK on mobile phones, two press items (Dalen).
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 053741 -0600
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
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.........From EMF-L.......
The U.K. press appears to be giving this subject good coverage.....guru....
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: More from the UK on mobile phones
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 12:28:11 +0100
From: Per Dalen
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From Independent News. /Per
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Mobile phones to carry government health warning
By Sarah Schaefer, Political Correspondent
27 November 2000
Mobile phones sold in the run-up to Christmas will carry a government
health warning – despite the lack of definitive evidence that they are harmful.
Officials confirmed yesterday that they were finalising a leaflet that
would warn buyers about uncertainty over mobile phones' potential health risks.
The leaflets will warn specifically that children should not spend too long
on their mobiles. They are expected to be distributed to shops within the
next two weeks to go out with the thousands of phones bought as Christmas
presents.
Ministers decided to act after a report published earlier this year called
for more research because there was continuing uncertainty over the
potential health risks. There are fears in Whitehall that the issue could
develop into a BSE-style health scare in future years if no precautionary
steps are taken now.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "There are still fears that using
mobile phones could have a harmful effect. We will produce advice for
consumers shortly."
There has also been conflicting evidence on the safety of earpieces for
mobile phones. Research commissioned by the Department of Trade and
Industry said the earpieces would limit any health risks of radiation, but
a study by the Consumers' Association cast doubt on their safety.
A government source said: "The truth is that we do not know enough about it
and the leaflet will say there is to be more research, but in the meantime
it is worth taking precautions." In the leaflets, parents will be told to
limit the time children spend on the phone.
Research published earlier this year said that mobile phone use among
children should be discouraged because their brains were more vulnerable
than adults to radiation. Responding to the report, the Government sent
advice to schoolsdiscouraging pupils under 16 from using mobile phones. In
addition, the Department of Health is in discussion with telecommunication
companies to distribute health warnings to alert families who already have
mobile phones.
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No evidence of risk doesn't mean phones are safe
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
27 November 2000
The official inquiry into the health risks of mobile phones published last
May found no evidence of any detrimental effects on users' health apart
from a demonstrably greater risk of car accidents for anybody driving while
having a telephone conversation.
However, the working party chaired by Sir William Stewart, a former
government chief scientist, argued in favour of the "precautionary
principle" and said mobile phone users should be made aware of the
limitations of scientific research and make up their own minds about what
action, if any, to take.
The panel's advice has now prompted ministers – with the lessons of the BSE
crisis still fresh in their minds – to issue warnings to consumers planning
to buy mobile phones in the run-up to Christmas.
The 12 independent experts on the committee, including Sir William, did not
give cellphones the all-clear because even though no study to date has
shown an unequivocal health risk, the absence of clear evidence means there
could still be a risk to users. "We all know what happened about BSE," Sir
William said on the publication of his report, mindful of the view in the
early 1990s that there was no evidence that "mad cow" disease threatened
human health.
But Sir William's report did recommend that the mobile phone industry
should refrain from promoting the use of cellphones to children on the
basis that if there was a risk, then children are likely to be in the
greatest danger.
"If there are currently unrecognised adverse health effects from the use of
mobile phones, children may be more vulnerable. In line with the
precautionary approach, widespread use by children for non-essential calls
should be discouraged," Sir William said.
Sir William added that he was against giving children "unfettered access"
to cellphones: "The younger the child, the more care should be taken in
allowing them to use mobile phones," he said.
Children are more likely to be at risk because their brains are still
developing, their skulls are thinner and their heads are smaller, which
means they receive a proportionately large dose of microwave radiation.
Most of the research carried out on mobile phones has involved exposing
cells or tissues to high levels of radiation. So far, the results have been
unclear about whether the phones pose a health risk.
Alan Preece, a researcher at Bristol University, has conducted the only
research so far to be carried out on human volunteers, who underwent a
range of psychological tests while using a mock device that simulated the
radiation emissions of a mobile phone.
Mr Preece failed to find any effects on memory, despite reports to the
contrary published by some newspapers. He did, however, discover that
people's reaction times tended to improve while on the phone.
This concerned him because radiation from mobiles may be having some effect
on the brain, possibly by a local heating effect, which may be improving
blood supply to one side of the user's head. Another investigation by
Which?, the consumer magazine, found that use of hands-free devices – which
are often sold on the promise that they can lessen radiation exposure to
the head – can actually increase radiation doses by up to three times as
the earpiece acts as an aerial that channels microwaves to the brain.
But the research on which these findings were based has been disputed by
other scientists, especially those working for the Federation of the
Electronics Industry, which criticised the methodology of the Which?
researchers.
After the Stewart inquiry, the Government is committed to spending millions
of pounds on more research, which may eventually find more satisfactory
answers on the health risks.
Until then, perhaps the best advice is not to use them while driving: there
is evidence that to do so increases the risk of accidents fourfold, even if
a hands-free device is used.
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Per Dalen
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com