The government’s advisory body on the health risks of mobiles – the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme (MTHR) – is putting together a new project that will monitor over 200,000 people for any signs of an increase in diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Professor Lawrie Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, and head of the MTHR is finalising negotiations with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry to fund a £3m study.
He told The Times that results of ongoing MTHR studies indicate that using mobile phones appears to be safe in the short term, but some data suggests “a hint” of problems for longer-term users.
“The dilemma is the time that it takes for a disease to appear. We know from smoking and with the bomb falling in Hiroshima that nothing was seen for 10 years.”
Prof Challis and other experts take the view that we need all the knowledge we can get. As he put it, “The responsible thing to do is to continue monitoring.”
He told The Times that results of ongoing MTHR studies indicate that using mobile phones appears to be safe in the short term, but some data suggests “a hint” of problems for longer-term users.
“The dilemma is the time that it takes for a disease to appear. We know from smoking and with the bomb falling in Hiroshima that nothing was seen for 10 years.”
Prof Challis and other experts take the view that we need all the knowledge we can get. As he put it, “The responsible thing to do is to continue monitoring.”