I have found this information about mobile phones and health problems on the Internet.
Since the 1920s, scientists have known that radio waves can cause heating of the skin and affect cells in the nervous system. People working with powerful radio waves have complained of impaired memory and ability to reason and the loss of control over both body movements and heart rate.
These observations form the basis of national safety guidelines for working with powerful radio waves. The safe limits for the public are about five times less than those recommended for workers.
But how do these compare to emissions from mobile phones? Mobile phones work on the lowest power possible. As a result, they don't emit many radio waves. This is not specifically connected with any health issues, but due to the logistics of cost and efficiency.
Mobile phones networks use the same principle that cartographers have used since Victorian times to colour maps so no adjoining countries are the same colour.
A mobile phone network is made up of interlocking hexagonal areas known as cells, the smaller these cells the clearer the signal. With small cells you are likely to be closer to the base station at the centre of a cell.
This means that both the base station and handset do not need powerful emissions to communicate with each other. This also fulfils another important criteria of a mobile phone: as the handset needs less power the battery will last for longer.
However, these guidelines are based solely on adverse effects caused by the heating of tissues. Although mobile phones do get warm when in use, it is generally accepted that this heating is not powerful enough to cause damage to the user. But radio waves also have another effect, and it is this which is currently causing concern
In 1999, the Government commissioned a group of independent scientists to look into any health threat from mobile phones. In May 2000 the Stewart Report published its findings:
There is no evidence of adverse health effects caused by radio wave radiation at current national safety limits. But gaps in current knowledge mean mobile phones cannot be classed as 'safe' yet
Radio waves may affect biological cells but this may not necessarily lead to disease or injury
Children should be especially careful about mobile phones use. Their skulls are still growing, so it is easier for radio waves from a mobile phone to enter their heads. Their cells are also developing and tend to absorb more radiation compared to adults. This is especially important in brain tissue, as the nervous system is very sensitive during development. Children should only use mobiles for short, essential calls
Mobile phone manufacturers must publish the amount of radio wave energy that each handset transmits to the human body, called the SAR value
There is no evidence of a risk to the health of people living near to base stations, but emissions should be monitored, especially near schools
All new base stations should be subject to planning permission
Drivers should be dissuaded from using either hand-held or hands-free phones whilst on the move
A further report by the Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation said in 2004 that there is no evidence that mobile phones harm health. But, backing up the Stewart Report, it also argued that more research was needed before there could be absolute certainty about the risk.
A Mobile Future
Is hands-free the answer?
The idea behind hands-free sets is simple. The strength of radio wave radiation decreases rapidly with distance from the handset. Exposure from a mobile phone even ten centimetres from your head is far lower than if the headset is right against your ear.
Reports of up to a 95% reduction in exposure suggest that hands-free sets are effective. But another study by the Consumers Association described an increase in radiation reaching the user when they used a hands-free kit.
Hands-free mobile kit
They claimed the ear-piece cable of the hands-free kit acted as an aerial, directing more radiowave into the user's ear. But this only happens when the phone is in a precise position and the cable is a specific length.
Shields are an alternative to hands-free kits. Independent tests have supported claims that they can protest users from some radio waves.
Future radiowaves
In late 2001 the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme was set up with a budget of £7.4 million from the Government and the mobile phone industry. Physicists, neuroscientists and engineers are investigating mobile phone safety including:
the effects of radio waves on blood pressure and cognitive functions, such as the abilities to concentrate, remember and learn
the connections between mobile phone use and brain cancer, acoustic neuroma, salivary gland cancer and leukaemia
long-term effects of mobile phone use looking at health histories of people who have used mobiles since the 1980s
They will be looking at both current mobile phones and the new generation of 3G phones which work at slightly different frequencies.
The results from these studies have ramifications far beyond the world of mobile communications. In many urban areas television and radio broadcast antennae commonly transmit higher radio frequency levels than any mobile phone base station.