The issue of the effects of cellular telephones on health took on a new urgency late this spring. The British government had formed a group of experts to evaluate possible ill effects of mobile phones and make recommendations for public policy. The Stewart report raises a number of difficult questions. One is how to make wise use of precautionary recommendations.
Users can quickly become enmeshed in technical details that have no demonstrable relation to risk.
Nevertheless, the output of the most modern handset is adaptively determined by the base station. Even more problematic are devices on the market that purport to reduce the user's exposure to cell phone radiation by shielding the head so as to absorb RF energy from the antenna. The effectiveness of these devices in the real world has not been demonstrated, and there is no scientific basis to claim that these devices benefit health in any way.