The first scientific evidence to the link mobile phone emissions with potential health risks is likely to provoke renewed and intense debate. Britain alone has more than 7 million mobile users. Mobile phones, both analogue and digital uses microwaves of a similar type to these found in microwave ovens, although at a slightly different frequency and at a much lower power. The concerns come from their proximity to heads when calls are made or received. Scientists had previously assumed that energy absorbed by the head was evenly distributed, but the latest research suggests that the waves can concentrate in the skull creating hot spots.
Mobile telephones are low power radio devices that transmit and receive microwave radiation.
Exposure limits relevant to mobile phones are expressed in terms of absorbed energy in small masses of tissue in the heard. The responsibility for complying with the recommended exposure limit lies with manufacturers. Concerns about possible adverse health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields, including cancer, have been raised the NRPB takes such concerns seriously and has committed considerable resource to addressing this scientific issue. Scientific data relating to other possible effects arising from exposure to electromagnetic radiation at frequencies similar to those of mobile phones are few and inconsistent. Some studies in rodents have suggested that extended exposure to high levels of microwave radiation can influence the function of the brain.