Jury still out on danger of mobiles

LONDON - It is no wonder the public is confused about the health hazards of mobile phones. Even scientists are divided on how dangerous they may be.

So far there is no irrefutable medical evidence that mobile phones cause brain tumours or other medical problems, but there have been studies showing there could be cause for concern.

Two review articles published in the Lancet medical journal have added to the debate by presenting opposing views on the safety of the phones that have become as essential to modern life as washing machines.

Dr Kenneth Rothman, of Epidemiology Resources in Boston, Massachusetts, says it is too early to reach a verdict. But the danger of their causing an accident is more immediate than the harm from electromagnetic radiation.

The heaviest users of mobile phones, he says, have more than double the number of deaths in road accidents, compared with the lightest users.

Based on evidence available now, he writes, "the main public health concern is clearly motor vehicle collisions, a behavioural effect rather than an effect of radio frequency exposure as such."

Even if scientists establish a link to brain cancer, he believes it will still be smaller than health risks from accidents.

But Gerard Hyland, a theoretical biophysicist at the University of Warwick in England and the International Institute of Biophysics in Neuss-Holzheim, Germany, takes a different view.

He argues that mobile phones can cause non-thermal damage to the body because their frequencies can interfere with body frequencies.

Headaches can be caused by the effect of radiation on the dopamine-opiate system of the brain, and sleep disruption is consistent with the influence of radiation on melatonin levels, he adds, referring to brain chemicals.

But Mr Hyland, who wants more research done into the impact of mobile phones on body frequencies, admits that it will be difficult to establish a link.

"There is a subjective element to how sensitive we are. What might affect you may not affect me," he explains.

In a commentary on the reports in the Lancet, Dr Philip Dendy, a former chief physicist at Addenbrookes Hospital, in Cambridge, England, said that at the moment it came down to public perceptions of safety.

"There are indicators which should certainly cause us not to be complacent, but they fall short at the moment of conclusive proof," he said.

"There is no absolute scale of safety.

"The bottom line is that at present the knowledge base of the hazards of mobile telephones is not good enough."

- REUTERS