The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR), which ran in the UK for 11 years until 2012, has published a final summary of its research projects.
The programme was set up in 2001 following what became known as the ‘Stewart Report’ from the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones.
A total of 31 research projects have now been completed as part of the MTHR Programme. They’ve been published in peer-reviewed journals and are also on the MTHR web site.
It notes in this report:
- no material evidence for an increased risk of childhood leukaemia or brain cancer from residential RF exposure
- no association between regular use of a mobile phone and the risk of leukaemia
- no evidence of a trend of increasing risk with the time since a mobile phone was first used, total years of use, cumulative number of calls or cumulative hours of use
- no evidence of a higher risk related to the use of analogue or digital phones
- no evidence that exposure to RF pulses directly evoked detectable electrical activity in the brain
- none of the studies provided any evidence that TETRA signals produce specific adverse effects in those exposed to them
One study suggested an increased risk of acute myeloid leukaemia with long-term phone use, although this wasn’t statistically significant and appears unlikely because this cancer usually develops quickly after exposure to a cancer-causing event.
Meanwhile, the COSMOS project - a cohort study of mobile phone use and health - is continuing to monitor the health of a large group of mobile phone users over a long period of time.
[MTHR report]