UK Consumers: Hand-Free Devices Risky
L O N D O N, Nov. 3 -- Fresh evidence that hands-freemobile phone kits can significantly boost the brain’s exposureto radiation was published on Thursday, challenging UKgovernment research amid consumer health concerns.
British consumer research magazine Which? said its newfindings confirmed claims it first published in April that usinghands-free earpieces could more than triple the brain’s exposureto radiation compared to a conventional mobile phone call.
Which? is published by the Consumers Association, a group analogous to Consumers Union in the United States, publisher of Consumer Reports according to Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, a U.S. newsletter that follows the radiation and cell phone issue.
Long-Standing Issues
Which?’s original report was dismissed in August by thegovernment, which had commissioned research that showed the kits didcut exposure levels.
But Which? said the methodology used in the governmentresearch was flawed and that further research using a morerealistic model confirmed hands-free kits could act as an aerialthat channeled radiation to the ear.
The level of emissions depended on the distance between thetip of the phone’s aerial and the earpiece, which variedaccording to how the phone was held. The government tests didnot allow for this, Which? said.
“As in our earlier tests, it’s clear that consumers can’trely on hands-free kits to reduce radiation emissions at thebrain from mobile phones,” Which? editor Helen Parker said.
Positions Change Radiation
“Although these kits can reduce radiation, they can alsoincrease it significantly, depending on where you position thephone and kit. Unfortunately, there is no way that consumers canwork out the best position to reduce radiation.”
The increased emissions were still within British andEuropean safety levels, she said.
Scientists agree electromagnetic radiation from mobilephones warms brain tissue, that some strains of mice havedeveloped cancer in tests in Australia and Finland and thatothers become disorientated.
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