A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

New Cell Phone Research: No Cause for Concern

Update on Landmark U.K. Stewart Report

January 20, 2004

A U.K. panel has concluded that health research on RF/MW radiation published over the last three years “does not give cause for concern.” In a report released on January 14, the Advisory Group on Non-Ionizing Radiation (AGNIR) found that, “The weight of evidence now available does not suggest that there are adverse effects from exposures to RF fields below guideline levels.”

But the committee also cautioned that the available literature has “limitations” and that “mobile phones have only been in widespread use for a relatively short time.” Research should therefore continue, it advised.

The review was requested by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (chaired by Sir William Stewart) in its own report, Mobile Phones and Health, issued three years ago (see MWN, M/J00, p.1). The AGNIR was established in 1990 to advise the U.K. National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB).

In an accompanying statement, the NRPB said that the AGNIR report “ supports the broad conclusions of the Stewart report in 2000 that a precautionary approach to the development of mobile phone technology remains a justifiable approach.”

A press release on the new AGNIR report, as well as a summary and the complete 177-page report, Health Effects from Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields, are posted on the Web.