§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect on medical devices of the presence nearby of mobile phone masts. [64153]
501W
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 24 June 2002]The Medical Devices Agency have not received any reports of telecommunications masts or base stations (similar to masts but located on building rooftops) causing interference to medical devices. We have undertaken work to assess the possible risk from these installations, the most recent being last March where in collaboration with a National Health Service trust and British Telecom measurements were taken on a proposed rooftop installation for the current cellular network. The results indicated that the field strength had dropped to virtually undetectable levels at distances greater than 25 metres from the antenna and that the risk to medical devices being used in adjacent buildings was negligible.
Previous measurement results obtained in other hospitals are listed in the Device Bulletin DB9702, March 1997.