§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent assessment he has made of the health risks posed by(a) mobile phones held next to the ear and (b) mobile phones used where there is a connection provided between phone and ear. [142121]
§ Ms HewittThe Department of Health published a leaflet on 8 December providing information about the health risks from mobile phones. The Department of Trade and Industry has not commissioned any specific measurements of mobile phones held next to the ear. Mobile phones in use in the UK should comply with the exposure guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation. The Department commissioned tests of hands-free kit, and the results of this work were published in August and are available on the DTI website http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the work his Department is undertaking, in conjunction with the Consumers' Association, into the dangers posed to consumers by mobile phone radiation. [142126]
§ Ms HewittThe Department has held discussions with the Consumers Association and the scientific community about the different results obtained from measurement tests of mobile phones hands-free kit. We have also discussed what further work could be undertaken. We are all agreed that even with the difference in measurement, the phones that were measured with the hands-free kit attached were still inside the exposure guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.