There’s been a lot of angst in the UK recently about possible health effects of mobile phone masts, and let’s face it, most of us at some time have wondered whether they really are safe. A major new study by scientists at the University of Essex has found that mobile phone masts are not the cause for the short-term symptoms that some people experience when near them.

Electrosensitivity  is a condition where people believe they suffer from physical and/or psychological symptoms when exposed to electromagnetic fields, such as those generated by mobile phone masts or Wi-Fi networks. Sufferers complain of tiredness, anxiety and nausea, and the condition is sometimes known as “phone mast allergy”.

The three year study involved 44 people with a history of electrosensitivity, as well as control group of 114 non suffers. Both GSM or 3G signals were tested.

When tests were carried out under double-blind conditions, where neither experimenter nor participant knew whether the signal was on or off, the number of symptoms reported was not related to whether the mast was on or off. Two of the 44 sensitive individuals correctly judged whether the mast was on or off in all six tests, compared with five out of 114 control participants. This proportion is what is expected by chance and was not increased in the sensitive.

However, the study did find that many of the sufferers reported feeling ill when they were told the signal was on, which tends to suggest that there may be a psychological cause for the symptoms experienced. 

“It is clear that sensitive individuals are suffering real symptoms and often have a poor quality of life. It is now important to determine what other factors could be causing these symptoms, so appropriate research studies and treatment strategies can be developed,” said principal researcher Professor Elaine Fox.

Dr James Rubin of the Mobile Phones Research Unit at Kings College London, who has reviewed 31 blind and double-blind studies carried out under controlled laboratory conditions, endorsed the study.

“The Essex study is one of the largest and most detailed of these experiments and its findings, that mobile phone signals are not responsible for the symptoms that some people describe, are in line with those from most other previous experiments,” he said. 

“This should be reassuring news for anyone who is concerned about the possible short-term health effects of masts.”

The study has already been attacked by campaign group Mast Sanity, which says the results were skewed:

“[The finding] was made possible by eliminating 12 of the most sensitive electrosenstive volunteers who had become too ill to continue the study,” fumed Mast Sanity. 

“Even a child can see that by eliminating 12 of the original 56 electrosensitive volunteers – over 20% of the group – that the study integrity has been completely breached. Interestingly, the official press release does not mention this fact.”

The study, which can be downloaded here, was funded by the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme, which is in turn funded by government and industry.

Related:

Entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 12:39 pm under Cell phones, Health.

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