THE EXPRESS 05/04/00

TWO Government departments refused to intervene in a heated row over the safety of mobile telephones yesterday.

The Department of Health and Department of Trade and Industry said an independent scientific group had been commissioned by the Government to investigate mobile telephone safety and was expected to report next month.

Yesterday's row came after a Consumers' Association Which? Report claimed that hands-free phone equipment - sold as a safety precaution - could in fact magnify health risks. That was hotly disputed by the highly profitable mobile phone industry but there was no authoritative guidance from the Government providing an independent view from Whitehall.

Instead, both Health and Trade and Industry, which is responsible for telecommunications, said safety issues were under investigation by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, chaired by former Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir William Stewart.

The group, which included a representative from the World Health Organisation, was set up a year ago to examine concerns about health effects from mobiles, base stations and transmitters. The Consumers' Association tests showed wired-up microphones and earpieces, which allow the user to keep the phone away from the head, actually multiplied the radiation microwaves reaching the brain.

But one manufacturer, whose product was slated, claimed that the tests were not scientifically sound, and an industry spokesman insisted previous tests had shown that hands-free kits reduced, not increased, radiation levels.

Former Labour Minister Joan Ruddock said: "Millions of mobile phone users will today be extremely worried by this report. These devices were purchased specifically in many cases because they were thought to eliminate the risk of radiation."

Urging ministers to produce definitive guidance for the public, Liberal Democrat consumer affairs spokesman Norman Baker said: "It is time the Government made a clear statement based on independent scientific advice to quantify the health risks to mobile phone users." However George McPherson, managing director of Philips Consumer Communications UK said: "No conclusions on the health effects of the use of mobile phones with or without headsets can be drawn on the basis of the tests performed at the request of Which? magazine.

"The magazine failed to use the internationally recognised standards for testing mobile phones. The so-called Specific Absorption Rates value is the only relevant limit for assessing mobile phones towards EU and US safety standards. Philips ensures its mobile phones comply with European and US exposure limits."