A group of leading UK doctors and academics is calling for the UK Government and the mobile phone industry to highlight the potential dangers of using mobile phones through an ad campaign to be aimed specifically at pregnant women and young children.
This is due to a recently published a report that claims more than 200 studies have linked mobile phone use to certain and potentially fatal medical conditions, such as brain tumours. The report, which was published by the campaign group MobileWise, highlights the need to act now to warn people of the potential dangers of using a mobile phone excessively. The authors of the report, who include Kevin O'Neill, a consultant Neurosurgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, argues that using a mobile phone for 30 minutes a day for ten years could double the risk of developing a brain tumour. The report also claims to highlight a link between mobile phone use and tumours in the salivary glands.
However, critics of the report have dismissed this latest move as nothing more than an attempt to scare the public, without having any evidence to support the claims made in the report. Past campaigns my MobileWise and other campaign groups have led to a number of mobile phone masts not being constructed due to apparent health risks, and has led to poor mobile phone reception in a number of places around the UK.
In October this year, the chancellor, George Osbourne, announced that an extra £150 million would be put into funding a new mobile phone infrastructure, because as he feels that a properly functioning mobile phone and broadband internet system are “...crucial to Britain's future.”
However, while both sides are split on this topic, it's obvious that phones are very popular, and that more research is needed on the subject, there is much more research to be done before the UK Government can consider putting health warnings on mobile phones.