QLink Home > Pressroom Main > Press Reports on EMF >

Press Reports on EMF

Hands-Free Mobile Phones "Emit More Radiation"
Yahoo.News (UK&Ireland), April, 2000

Some hands-free kits for mobile phones can increase radiation exposure to the brain, according to new research. Consumer watchdogs found that the earpieces act like aerials, directing up to three times as much microwave radiation into the brain as a phone held next to the head. Some experts are now advising users to throw away the kits, millions of which have been bought by people believing they reduce the risk of cancerous brain tumours.

Scientific tests were ordered in the wake of medical studies in Britain and overseas suggesting that mobile phone radiation is linked to brain tumours, genetic damage and a range of illnesses, including Alzheimer's. The industry has consistently denied that there is any proof of danger, but many companies and individual users bought hands-free kits to cut exposure to radiation.

The tests for the CA's Which? magazine found that instead of offering protection, the two devices tested actually acted as aerials, and channelled three times as much radiation from the phones into the users' heads. The resutls from Which? - the trading arm of the CA - came from tests on hands-free kits for a Philips Savvy phone sold by BT Cellnet and for an Ericsson A101-8S sold at Carphone Warehouse.

While the watchdog did not have time to test other kits, it said it believed the results would be similar. Graeme Jacobs, Editor of Which? magazine said: "If you're worried about levels of radiation from your mobile phone, you shouldn't rely on a hands-free set. The two models we tested tripled the radiation to your brain..."

-------------

See also:
Why Cell Phone Headsets Increase Radiation to Your Head