Mobile phone safety - Frequently asked questions about mobile phone safety

What research has been carried out on the health risks of mobile phones?

What research has been carried out in the UK?

What did the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR) find regarding the health risks of mobile phones?

Do mobiles affect brain function?

Do mobile phones and mobile phone masts cause unpleasant symptoms?

Are there biological reasons to believe that mobile phones might be harmful?

Are mobile phone masts dangerous?

What is currently considered the biggest risk associated with using mobile phones?

Do scientists know everything about mobile phones and health?

Can I trust the recommendations of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme?

What research has been carried out on the health risks of mobile phones?

Many studies are being carried out in Europe and elsewhere to investigate whether there are any links between mobile phones and various health problems. These include the COSMOS and INTERPHONE studies.

The COSMOS study

The COSMOS study involves scientists from the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and The Netherlands monitoring almost 300,000 mobile phone users in Europe to identify possible health problems linked to the use of mobile phones over a long period of time.

The UK part of the study, run by Imperial College London, will follow the health of more than 100,000 adult mobile phone users for 20 to 30 years.

Scientists will look at any changes in the frequency of specific symptoms over time, such as headaches and sleep disorders, as well as the risks of cancers, benign tumours and neurological and cerebrovascular disease.

The study in the UK is jointly funded by industry and government under the Research Initiative on Health and Mobile Telecommunications (RIHMT), and is managed through the Department of Health’s Policy Research Programme.

The INTERPHONE study

The INTERPHONE study (PDF, 176kb) was a multi-national study set up in 2000 involving research in 13 countries. The aim was to see whether mobile phone use is associated with an increased risk of head and neck tumours.

In May 2010 the results were released and concluded that there was no increased risk of tumours with mobile phone use. However, the study also concluded that the potential effect of long-term heavy use of mobile phones needed further investigation.

What research has been carried out in the UK?

In April 1999, Tessa Jowell, then minister for public health, asked Sir Walter Bodmer, the chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board, to set up an Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP). Jowell asked the IEGMP “to consider concerns about possible health effects from the use of mobile phones, base stations and transmitters”.

In 2000, the committee published the Stewart Report, which led to the creation of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR). The MTHR has now released two reports, one in September 2007 and one in February 2014 (completed in 2012), which pulled together all the evidence gathered.

The Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) has also published reviews of the potential health effects of radio waves, the most recent of which was published in 2012. You can read the 2012 report on the Public Health England (PHE) website (PDF, 3.4Mb).

What did the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR) find regarding the health risks of mobile phones?

The reports published by the MTHR did not find evidence of risks to health from the radio waves produced by mobile phones.

However, it was acknowledged that possible effects from long-term use could not yet be ruled out and further research was recommended.

You can read the two MTHR reports on the MTHR website.

Do mobiles affect brain function?

The MTHR’s set of volunteer studies of brain function is one of the largest carried out anywhere. The studies found that exposure to radio frequency fields generated by mobile phones has no effect on brain function. They looked at factors such as memory and response times, and found no changes.

Do mobile phones and mobile phone masts cause unpleasant symptoms?

The MTHR’s research did not find any evidence to suggest some people suffer unpleasant symptoms caused by exposure to signals from mobile phones or masts. Its research programme included some of the largest and most robust studies of this question.

The MTHR recognised specific concerns about TETRA radios and base stations used by emergency services, but the report released in 2014 said there is currently no evidence of specific adverse effects related to exposure to TETRA signals.

Are there biological reasons to believe that mobile phones might be harmful?

The Stewart Report noted that a small number of experiments had suggested that radio waves from mobile phones cause biological effects in cells and animals. The MTHR conducted careful studies of two possible cellular effects identified in the Stewart Report: stress protein production and calcium signalling.

Stress proteins are produced when cells experience an increase in temperature. Previous research had found these proteins may be produced in nematode worms when exposed to mobile phone emissions thought to be too weak to result in significant temperature rises, which suggested radio waves may have a cellular effect unrelated to heating.

However, the studies supported by the MTHR showed the stress proteins were in fact produced as a result of a slight temperature rise (around 0.2C) caused by radio wave exposure and, since this was already a well documented effect that is considered harmless, the MTHR did not propose further research this area.

Calcium signals (produced by mammalian cells) are important in controlling various functions of the cells. Research published in 2010 found no evidence that exposure to radio waves had any effect on these signals.

Are mobile phone masts dangerous?

Levels of exposure to radio wave radiation from mobile phone masts (base stations) are generally much lower than from mobile phones and are well below international guidelines.

Audits of the amount of radiation produced by base stations in the UK have found that the radiation produced is generally less than 0.005% of the guideline values.

What is currently considered the biggest risk associated with using mobile phones?

The MTHR reports stated that the biggest known threat that mobile phones pose to health is from their use when driving, as using them at the wheel impairs driving performance and increases the risk of accidents.

There is no statistical evidence that mobiles are more of a distraction than a conversation with a passenger, but passengers are normally aware of traffic conditions and are therefore likely to stop talking in potentially dangerous situations.

Do scientists know everything about mobile phones and health?

No, and research is continuing. Mobile phones have only been widely used for about 20 years, so it is not possible to be so certain about the safety of long-term use.

More research on the effects of mobile phones on children is also needed, as they are already known to be more sensitive than adults to many environmental agents, such as lead pollution and sunlight. Government advice is to be on the safe side and limit mobile phone use by children.

Can I trust the recommendations of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme?

Although the programme was jointly funded by the UK government and the mobile phone industry, its management was overseen by an independent committee of scientists, including a representative of the World Health Organization, and the funders had no influence over the selection, interpretation or reporting of studies.