Boffins call for safer phones

TOP BOFFINS concerned about the effects of mobile phone radiation have called for the FCC to buck its ideas up about what it thinks is safe.

At a scientific conference in the US, researchers from different scientific disciplines indicated that the current safety standards used in the former British colony of Virginia are too lightweight.

Dariusz Leszcynski, a researcher for the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland told the conference that the FCC standards were based on limited research on humans.

His agency has issued two advisories to the public warning them about the perils of using mobile phones. The last one warned parents to limit their kids' use of mobiles.

The great unwashed are a bit confused by the hundreds of contradictory studies related to the effects of mobile phone use. More recent long-term studies involving humans suggest that heavy cell phone users of 10 years or more have developed brain tumours on the same side of their heads as where they used to hold their mobile phones.

US agencies that regulate mobile phones, namely the FCC and FDA, have not issued warnings. They tell the world that there is nothing to fear, the public should just go home and watch reality television like good US citizens - if it was the UK they would advise watching gardening shows and Changing Rooms. They say "the scientific evidence does not show a danger to any users of mobile phones from RF exposure, including children and teenagers."

Martin Blank, a professor and researcher in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University told CNET that the FCC's standards are inadequate and misleading. He said that they are based on the heating of tissue which is meaningless.

He said that you need a certain amount of energy to cause a change in DNA, but that energy could be spent even before the temperature goes up and can be measured. People are led to believe that these standards say something, and they don't, he said. µ