December 1, 2004
A British laboratory will study whether mobile phone towers have adverse effects on human health. The Electromagnetics and Health (EMH) Laboratory at the University of Essex will conduct the largest study of its kind into the impact of electromagnetic fields emitted by cell towers.
"Mobile phone technology and usage continues to develop, and it is vital that research into potential health risks keeps pace," said Professor Elaine Fox, who will lead the project. "Our new laboratory at Essex is equipped to play an important role in understanding the effects of the electromagnetic fields generated by mobile-phone base stations on human health."
The new laboratory will provide a highly controlled environment to eliminate other sources of radiation. Special software will ensure that neither the experimenter nor the participant know when the base station is switched on or off, and will select the different orders in which participants are exposed to the signals.
The lab will test 132 electromagnetic hypersensitivity sufferers and 132 control participants. They will alternately be exposed to electromagnetic signals from conventional mobile phone base stations, from new 3G masts and to no signals at all, and will be asked to note any symptoms they experience.
The research team has already surveyed 20,000 people in Essex and Suffolk to find out what proportion reported sensitivity to electromagnetic fields, and to establish key symptoms of this sensitivity.
The laboratory will be opened by Sir William Stewart, who chaired the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, which found no evidence that cell phones create any adverse health effects from radio frequency (RF) emissions. But the study noted that there are limitations to the research carried out so far, and mobile phones have only been in widespread use for a relatively short time.
