Mobile Telephony and Health Health Protection Advice
There is a large body of scientific evidence relating to exposure to radio waves and there are thousands of published scientific papers covering studies of exposed tissue samples (e.g. cells), animals and people. It is not difficult to find contradictory results in the literature, and an important role of the HPA Radiological Protection Division (RPD) is to develop judgements on the totality of the evidence in controversial areas of the science.
NRPB has reviewed the fundamental science relating to exposure and published the results in the Documents of the NRPB. Advice (Documents of the NRPB : Volume 14, No.2 - Health Effects from Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields: Report of an independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation) was received from an independent Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation (AGNIR). The scientific staff of RPD includes internationally recognised experts.
Advice on Exposure Guidelines
NRPB has published advice on limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields and has recommended the adoption in the UK of the ICNIRP guidelines. The advice from NRPB is supported by a comprehensive scientific review covering the broad base of the scientific evidence: epidemiology, experimental biology and dosimetry. Included in the scientific review are biological effects that might have health consequences, but whose existence has not been confirmed and which cannot be used to develop numerical restrictions on exposure. Recommendations are given for research that should be carried out in order to improve the basis of the guidelines.
RPD is committed to monitoring the results of further research related to effects of EMFs on health and to revising its advice when appropriate.
ICNIRP Guidelines
The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) is an independent international scientific organisation formally recognised by the World Health Organisation. ICNIRP reviews the science relating to exposure to electromagnetic fields and produces guidelines for limiting people's exposure. ICNIRP has a website from which a copy of its guidelines and other background information may be downloaded.
The latest set of ICNIRP guidelines were published in 1998 and ICNIRP intends that they should be used as an input to the development of national standards.The guidelines contain basic restrictions on exposure that are set to avoid adverse effects of exposure on health. The basic restrictions are specified in terms of fundamental dose quantities that occur inside the body; consequently, they are not easy to measure. Reference levels are therefore given also in terms of measurable quantities outside the body such as field strength and power density.
Mobile phones expose that part of the head to which they are held to a greater extent than other parts of the body, which are further away. Therefore, for mobile phones, the most important restriction in the guidelines is that placed on the localised Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of energy in the head. Base station antennas tend to be much further away from the body and the reference level in terms of power density is usually meaningful as an indicator of SAR averaged over the whole body.
The Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones
The Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) considered UK guidelines in its report of May 2000 and its conclusions are given in paragraphs 6.34 to 6.42. Key points were as follows:
IEGMP supported the position of NRPB and ICNIRP in concluding that heating remains the best basis for setting exposure limits. IEGMP further concluded that the approach of ICNIRP was preferred because within the general public there may be people with illnesses that render them unusually susceptible to the heating effects of radio waves.
IEGMP recommended (at that time) that, as a precautionary approach, the ICNIRP guidelines for public exposure be adopted for use in the UK rather than the NRPB guidelines.
IEGMP concluded the balance of evidence to date suggests that exposures to RF radiation below NRPB and ICNIRP guidelines do not cause adverse health effects to the general population.
Last reviewed: 4 September 2008