June 1999

MPs form mobile phone pressure group The cross party group of MPs, set up by Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis, plan to intensify debate on the issue in the House of Commons. Heavy use of mobile phones has been linked with headaches, short term memory loss and even the development of brain tumours. The group will also examine any potential health risks caused by mobile phone transmitter masts.
The government's official watchdog, the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), says there is no evidence of a link between mobiles and health problems, as do the mobile phone manufacturers.
http://www.tassie.net.au/emfacts/mobiles/mp.html

Report release information from The Expert Group

Observer Sunday April 30, 2000
The Government committee on mobile phone safety, which will publish its findings next week, will demand mobile phone companies give customers more information on the dangers of radiation from handsets.

Committee members told The Observer they were angered by earlier reports that it would say mobile phones were safe.

The committee of 12 experts was set up last year by then Health Minister Tessa Jowell after reports that radiation from mobiles could trigger memory loss, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. It was chaired by Sir William Stewart of Tayside University, former chief scientist to the Cabinet Office.

Its report will be handed to the Department of Health this week and published a week later. It is expected the Government will act on all its recommendations.
The report will call for national guidelines to control the construction of mobile phone masts, and stress that concern about their siting near schools and residential areas must be tackled. It will say rules on safety drawn up by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) should also be tightened.

Although the committee will find no conclusive proof of health dangers from mobile phones, it will insist on more research. The Government gives the NRPB, which paid for the Stewart committee's work, £13m each year to fund radiation research. Of that, only £1m is spent on investigating the impact of radiation from masts and a further £330,000 on the effects of mobile phones.

The NRPB is privately hoping it will benefit from a £22 billion windfall the Government will receive from the sale of third-generation mobile phone licences. The board was excluded from the final writing of the report to make it clear it had not 'captured' the Stewart committee.