Mobile Phone

The effect of mobile phone radiation in humans is still being questioned. In Britain a 27 year old woman with a brain tumour is taking a mobile phone manufacturer to court who she blames for her tumour. A biologist, Roger Coghill has also been given permission to bring a case against a provider of mobile phone equipment for failing to warn people of radiation hazards. A wide variety of electrical devices contribute to electro smog, ranging from computers, to phones, TV sets, radar transmitter and transformers. However mobile phone radiation is certainly intense, as evidenced by the effects on aircraft navigation systems, or more obviously on a nearby conventional telephone or a music system. Large numbers of people are expected to come forward with claims that a wide variety of conditions have been triggered or made worse by use of mobiles. These claims will be extremely difficult to prove. Even if a link is shown, proving that a particular case was directly related is almost impossible. This has been the case, for example, over Gulf War syndrome, or reactions to MMR vaccine, or the debates over passive smoking, or clustering of leukaemia cases near power stations. Once the case against mobiles is widely recognised, many lawsuits are anticipated alleging that other sources of electromagnetic radiation have damaged health - for example electricity sub-stations, computers, generators, minicab aerials. Some manufacturers already sell radiation shields for mobiles, reducing radiation to the head.

The greatest risk to a mobile phone user is from an accident while distracted - particularly when driving. This risk is likely to be many thousands of times greater than a radiation hazard. Whatever effects there may be in humans, the risk to an individual user is likely to be very small indeed.