Is your mobile phone killing you?

When you have been on your mobile phone for more than a few minutes, and your ear begins to feel hot, do you wonder whether your brain is being fried?

Do you worry that the aerials which have gone up near your home will damage your health?

Given that 90% of Italians between the ages of 16 and 55 have a mobile phone, and that 60% of those people have two, the phenomenon known here as “elettrosmog”, i e electro-magnetic radiation, is a hot topic. That’s probably why scientists, students from 13 secondary schools, environmentalists and members of the general public descended on the British Council in Rome to find out what the dangers really are.

The message from Professor Barker, of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, was clear: no ill effects on health have been proved but science can’t guarantee anything 100%. If we insisted on eliminating risks totally, this would mean no television, radio, mobile phones, nor even electric light.

The morning was made even more lively by a demonstration by Professor Tony Barker of electro-magnetic radiation on 16-year old Daniel Giovannini from the Enrico Mattei Technical Institute. Daniel said afterwards: “it tickled.”

The debate after the presentations by Tony and by his Italian counterpart Guglielmo d’Inzeo, Professor of Bioelectromagnetic Interaction at La Sapienza University of Rome, was primarily with upper secondary students, who had studied the issues before the event. Their knowledge and perceptions are being monitored by a public understanding of science project in collaboration with our partners in this event, the Italian national research council. Most of their questions focused on appropriate precautionary measures but the speakers were also asked whether children were more at risk from the use of mobile phones, and whether scientists’ expert opinions might be compromised by receiving research funding from mobile phone companies. For now, most of them feel reassured by what they heard at the event but we are waiting for our research colleagues to report back systematically on how the project changed their views.

Some comments from the students:

“Thank you for helping me understand the dangers of electromagnetic waves.”

“For me the most interesting thing was the fact that a scientist came from abroad to answer our questions… It was useful for science and society to meet: I’d like to do that again.”

"Correct scientific information given in a way that is easily understood to everyone"