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- There is increasing concern over the
health risks from mobile phones
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- The British Government has commissioned
a study using human guinea pigs to test whether the prolonged use of mobile
phones carries serious health risks.
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- Eighteen volunteers are taking part in
the study which is part of the Department of Health's radiation protection
research programme.
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- The tests, which are being carried out
at Bristol University, are designed to detect short-term memory, reaction
times and awareness in mobile phone users.
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- The volunteers will spend between 20
minutes to half-an-hour with a handset fixed to their heads, and carry
out a series of tasks. Some of the handsets will be dummy ones, others
will be real.
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- It is part of a bigger project at Bristol
University looking into the effects of microwave radiation
on human beings.
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- Some scientists have suggested that radiation
from mobile handsets could cause brain tumours, cancer, anxiety and memory
loss, and there has been increasing concern amongst the public about the
possible side-effects.
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- Dr Alan Preece of Bristol University,
who is conducting the research, wrote in an article last year: "The
facts are that cell phones emit either continuous microwaves at about 900
MHz or pulsed microwaves at 1.8 GHz and these must cause a small amount
of tissue heating, including brain tissue."
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- Dr Preece says he has had a lot of enquiries
from people worried about the effects of mobile phones.
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- "There has been a lot of anecdotal
evidence of people feeling weak, having memory problems and depression."
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- Official figures published last November
showed that nearly one in five households in the UK possessed a mobile
phone.
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