Mobile phone radiation and health

Mobile phone radiation and health concerns have been raised, especially following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world (as of August 2005[update], there were more than 2 billion users worldwide). Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, and some[1] believe this may be harmful to human health. These concerns have induced a large body of research (both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals and in humans). Concerns about effects on health have also been raised regarding other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks.

The World Health Organization, based upon the consensus view of the scientific and medical communities, states that health effects (e.g. headaches) are very unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations,[2][3] and expects to make recommendations about mobile phones in October 2009.[4]

However, some national radiation advisory authorities, including those of Austria,[5] France,[6] Germany,[7] and Sweden[8] recommended to their citizens measures to minimize exposure. Examples of the recommendations are:

* Use hands-free to decrease the radiation to the head.
* Keep the mobile phone away from the body.
* Do not telephone in a car without an external antenna.

The use of "hands-free" was not recommended by the British Consumers' Association in a statement in November 2000 as they believed that exposure was increased.[9] However, measurements for the (then) UK Department of Trade and Industry[10] and others for the French l’Agence française de sécurité sanitaire environnementale[11] showed substantial reductions. In 2005 Professor Lawrie Challis and others said clipping a ferrite bead onto hands-free kits stops the radio waves travelling up the wire and into the head.