Mobile Phones and Cognitive Function

In the 100 years since Marconi first communicated by radio between countries and continents, the use of communications equipment has increased dramatically and so has the level of radio-frequency radiation in the environment (Uddmar 1999). In the last ten years the development of hand-held mobile phones has introduced a new element, namely a much higher level of exposure of the head and particularly the brain. Standards to control exposure of the body were introduced by the IRPA/International Non-ionising Radiation Committee for the protection of the occupationally exposed before mobile phones existed. The guidelines only considered thermal elevation and were set to be 10% of that shown to produce behavioural changes associated with elevated temperature, taking into account thermal distribution by blood flow. A number of countries developed their own guidelines, and levels of specific absorption rate (SAR) in the head were set to be 10 Wkg⁻¹ (NRPB, UK), 2 Wkg⁻¹ (ICNIRP, Europe) or 1.6 Wkg⁻¹ (ANSI-IEEE, USA).