Industry welcomes start of major mobile phone independent health research programme

25 January 2002

The mobile phone industry is ready to start funding the three-year, £7.36 million independent health research programme announced today by Sir William Stewart.

"The industry welcomes the start of the independent health research programme into mobile telephony. This announcement represents the delivery of an important recommendation from the Report of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones" said Mike Dolan, Director of the Mobile Telecomms Advisory Group.

"The mobile phone industry is committed to addressing any public concerns about mobile telephony in an open and transparent way. Good quality relevant research informs the scientific community and public understanding" he added.

While the balance of evidence from scientific studies to date does not suggest that radio frequency emissions cause adverse health effects, an independent research programme using standard experimental protocols forms part of a precautionary approach to the issue.

As recommended by the Stewart Report, the industry's role has been to provide 50 per cent of the funding while an independent panel of scientists chaired by Sir William Stewart directs the programme.

Notes to editors

The mobile phone industry is contributing £3.68m over three years to the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme

Companies contributing to the research programme include the four existing UK network operators (BT Cellnet, Orange, One 2 One and Vodafone); the new licence holder Hutchison 3G; companies that are members of the Mobile Manufacturers' Forum (MMF) - Alcatel, Ericsson, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Siemens, Sony and Sagem; Cable & Wireless, Crown Castle International and The Carphone Warehouse,

Details of the research programme can be found at www.mthr.org.uk