Nevertheless, there does remain a need for further research. The following summarises the NRPB position on the issue of the safety of mobile phones. There is a consensus among national and international expert bodies concerned with radiation protection that standards for the protection of people should be based on sound scientific evidence relating to established effects on human health. NRPB has published guidelines 1 advising restrictions on the rate at which energy is absorbed in the body. Compliance with the guidelines will ensure that temperature rises are sufficiently small not to be harmful.
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 head. In the UK, the limit recommended by NRPB is 0.1 watt of power absorbed in any 10 g of tissue in the head. The responsibility for complying with the recommended exposure limit lies with manufacturers. Calculations using an anatomically realistic mathematical model of the human head indicate that mobile phones currently used in the UK comply with the exposure limit. Concerns about possible adverse health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields, including cancer, have been raised.