Department does not share mobile phone concerns

The Department of Communications will tell an Oireachtas committee today that it does not share concerns expressed in a recent UK scientific study which suggested that there may be health risks attached to mobile-phone use, particularly by children.

The chairman of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Noel O'Flynn, has told The Irish Times that it would be asking technical experts from the Department on the level of investigations it had carried out into possible dangers associated with mobile phones.

The committee will also hear from the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, which Mr O'Flynn said had written to it on a number of occasions expressing concern at the risks from mobile phones.

Mr O'Flynn said there had been 26 separate international studies carried out, and there had been no conclusive evidence of a health risk from mobile-phone use.

However, he said it was important for the committee to hear from technical experts in the Department on the issue.

A spokesman for the Department of Communications said that its technical experts would tell the committee today that it does not share concerns about health risks posed by mobile-phone use.

The Department of Communications has studied a report published this month by the British National Radiological Protection Board (BNRPB) but does not concur with its warnings about the use of mobile phones by children.

The chairman of the BNRPB, Prof William Stewart, last week advised parents not to give mobile phones to children.

"If there are risks - and we think there may be risks - then the people who are going to be most affected are children, and the younger the child, the greater the danger."

The spokesman for the Department of Communications said it would tell the committee that it participated in World Health Organisation (WHO) and EU research studies on mobile phones.