A new Position Statement from the Institution of Engineering and Technology says there is no persuasive evidence that normal mobile phone usage or exposure to pylons and power lines causes harmful health effects, such as cancer.
The IET, with 150,000 members in 127 countries, is Europe’s largest body of engineering and technology professionals; the statement from its Biological Effects Policy Advisory Group says the overwhelming majority of evidence does not indicate that normal exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields has harmful health effects.
Professor Tony Barker, a Fellow of the IET and chairman of the BEPAG, said "There is still a huge amount of interest in whether exposure to mobile phones and electricity pylons has harmful health effects. However, over the years the conclusion of most scientific bodies, including the Institution of Engineering and Technology, has remained substantially the same - that there is no persuasive evidence of this. The absence of robust new evidence of harmful health effects in the past two years is reassuring and is consistent with findings over the last two decades."
The Position Statement reviewed 813 scientific papers from 2008 and 2009. 44% of these covered static and low frequencies (typically associated with power generation and distribution), 46% dealt with radio-frequency fields and 64% of these were specifically related to mobile phone frequencies.