11-Year UK Study Reports No Health Danger From Mobile Phone Transmissions

Mark.JUK writes "The United Kingdom's 11-years long Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR) has today published a comprehensive report that summarizes 31 research projects, which investigated the potential for biological or adverse health effects of mobile phone and wireless signals on humans (e.g. as a cause for various cancers or other disorders). The good news is that the study, which has resulted in nearly 60 papers appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals, found 'no evidence' of a danger from mobile transmissions in the typically low frequency radio spectrum bands (e.g. 900MHz and 1800MHz etc.)."

Comments

It doesn't matter.

[SuricouRaven]

Scares usually persist long after any scientific backing is gone. Look at anti-vax, for example - the one study showing a link between vaccines and autism has not only been discredited but exposed as an outright fraud by a doctor who was paid to produce specific results. Yet the anti-vax movement continues to believe in the connection regardless. Or the abortion-breast-cancer link - originating in a study which misinterpreted results due to the lack of a true control group and now rejected by just about every reputable cancer-related organisation. Yet, once again, belief in the link remains widespread in the pro-life movement - largely because they wish it were true. This is the same thing again - it doesn't matter how many studies show no adverse effects, we're still going to see a lot of people claiming wireless networks gives them a migraine and worrying about phone-induced cancer.

Re:It doesn't matter.

[ledow]

A determined idiot can be an almost unresolvable roadblock.

It doesn't mean we should stop beating sense into them, though. I find it much more scary that something like 50% of Americans believe that astrology has some effect on their life... at least these people are basing their prejudices on something that appeared (for a while, in a modern environment) scientifically plausible.

Sorry, but until we can eliminate the UFO-believers( and the astrologers and palm-readers and the conspiracy theorists, and whole swathes of others) we don't stand a chance of having no misinformation being spread by idiots about health-scares.

Go ask people about swimming on a full stomach. Then find out the truth (it makes no difference!). We're in the Misinformation Age.

Re:It doesn't matter.

[Welsh Dwarf]

> I find it much more scary that something like 50% of Americans believe that astrology has some effect on their life...

But it does, it's called the placebo effect!

Re:It doesn't matter.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us have strong enough stomach valve muscles to be able to be horizontal on a full stomach.

Some of us can't handle fast blinking reddish lights. Some people get sea sick or puke when watching 1st person shooters. Others puke when people near them puke (an evolutionary good idea if you're all eating the same food and someone gets sick). Some people sneeze when you flash a light in their face. Humans have very few magnetic sensitive cells but we do have some. If someone says he can feel when he's facing north no matter the time of day there's reason to believe him. Just because something is rare doesn't mean it can't happen. Some people have allergic reactions to light.

It's not hard to believe that a few people can be affected by every new tech we created. It's unlikely that many people are affected by most radio spectrum bands, but I'd bet money that someone out of the 7 billion people on the planet does have some type of issue. It's even more believable when you learn that your heart responses to different radio frequencies by beating differently: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/90/5/2299

People need to keep their minds open. It's an interesting world and we know very little about how it all works.

Re:It doesn't matter.

[ledow]

Yep. This is what annoys me.

I totally, 100% believe in extra terrestrial life. The Drake equation and simple statistics says that there has to be some - even if it's just a scientist "hunch".

But I cannot fathom why people think they are visiting us in little spaceships that happen to look EXACTLY like the movie little space ships (yet, before movies, reports all looked like descriptions from popular sci-fi books, etc.).

I can't walk down a street without being caught on a thousand CCTV cameras. I wouldn't be able to send up a Chinese lantern without the local police coming to find out who did it. Hell, if someone comes in and is spotted by the military the first we're likely to know is from the fallout when they try to blow it out of the sky thinking it's an enemy deviating from their airspace.

Yet, somehow, these aliens with inter-system flight technology always seems to be "just" caught in blurry, out-of-focus, tiny image as just a fleeting dot and yet nobody else in the area notices anything at all. Until you ask them. Then they saw five guys in silver suits.

I believe in "U.F.O."'s (the unidentified object kind). The theories for what they are is absolute crap as they have only ever turned out to be aircraft, sunlight, camera aberrations, and hoax.

Hell, some bloke phoned 999 in the UK and reported a strange light in his garden hovering over him. Ten minutes later he called back to apologise as it was "The Moon". The clip plays on every "funny clip" show on TV. When you factor that into UFO reports, you really have to wonder how the human race manages to get to work in the mornings.

Re:I agree

[mjwx]

I agree. If I say so, then it must be true!

B-B-B-But all the astrologers told me this radiomation is dangerous to mi Qi. That and I may face challenges today.

Who is this "study" to cast doubt on that.

Re:Prediction

[jklovanc]

There is a simple long term study that proves that cell phones do not appreciably increase brain cancer risks. It is the basic cancer statistics. That graph covers the years 1992 to 2010. Over that period of time cancer rated have been pretty steady. Considering the explosion in subscriber after 1998 there should be an explosion in brain cancers. There is not. No correlation therefore no causation.

Re:Prediction

[jklovanc]

Cancer.gov as in U.S. government as in the most trusted source in studies.

Your best shot is a general disbelief of anything coming from a government agency? Get real. Look at any epidemiology report from anywhere on earth and you will fine no increase in brain cancers. If you don't believe that one then try this one as it is non-governmental.

If dog poo is present and no one got sick then dog poo is safe. If you do the same test on millions of people in ever increasing numbers over 15 years and there is no upward trend in illness then dog poo is safe. If dog poo was unsafe there should be at least a few people who got sick. There are two parts to a study; correlation and causation. Correlation asks the question is there a similar trend in two factors. For example, the increased presence of dog poo and the increased incidence of illness. The second step is to prove if that correlation might be caused by a third factor. Possibly the presence of dog urine also increases with the presence of dog poo and it is the urine that is causing the issue and not the poo. If the correlation step fails there is no possible causation. There had been a dramatic increase in the number of cell phones used yet no increase in the rate of brain cancers. There is no correlation therefore no possible causation.

Grain of Salt

[sociocapitalist]

How many studies were there that showed that smoking wasn't bad for your health?

It would be interesting to know who funded all the referenced studies, as well.