Hands-Free Mobile Phones "Emit More Radiation"
Yahoo.News (UK&Ireland), April, 2000

Some hands-free kits for mobile phones can increase radiation exposure to the brain, according to new research. Consumer watchdogs found that the earpieces act like aerials, directing up to three times as much microwave radiation into the brain as a phone held next to the head. Some experts are now advising users to throw away the kits, millions of which have been bought by people believing they reduce the risk of cancerous brain tumors.

Scientific tests were ordered in the wake of medical studies in Britain and overseas suggesting that mobile phone radiation is linked to brain tumors, genetic damage and a range of illnesses, including Alzheimer's. The industry has consistently denied that there is any proof of danger, but many companies and individual users bought hands-free kits to cut exposure to radiation.

The tests for the CA's Which? Magazine found that instead of offering protection, the two devices tested actually acted as aerials, and channeled three times as much radiation from the phones into the users' heads. The results from Which? - the trading arm of the CA - came from tests on hands-free kits for a Philips Savvy phone sold by BT Cellnet and for an Ericsson A101-8S sold at Car phone Warehouse.

While the watchdog did not have time to test other kits, it said it believed the results would be similar. Graeme Jacobs, Editor of Which? magazine said: "If you're worried about levels of radiation from your mobile phone, you shouldn't rely on a hands-free set. The two models we tested tripled the radiation to your brain..."