FMK - Maier: Finland confirms the safety of mobile telephone systems
Finnish research programme does not find any health risks from using mobile phones
Another major research project on mobile telephone systems has presented its results from more than 3 years of research. "HERMO" (Health Risk Assessment of Mobile Communications) - a Finnish research programme that comprises 13 individual projects - has come to the following result: There is no proof of mobile phones causing a risk to health.
The as yet largest Finnish mobile telecommunications research programme was carried out at the Universities of Tampere, Turku, Helsinki, the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), the Finnish Institute for Work and Health and the Finnish Radiation Protection Authorities (STUK) and coordinated by the University of Kuopio. In this newly published third stage of the EMF research programme by the Finnish government, abbreviated as HERMO, the focal point was any possible impairment to the nervous system and the sense organs. Based on experiments on cells and animals, mathematical models and study projects directly on people, the researchers were unable to find any evidence that revealed a risk to health.
Mobile telephone systems and children
According to Jukka Juutilainen, HERMO project manager and scientist at the University of Kuopio, no negative health effects for children and young people could be determined. This was based on a scientific experiment on animals, which simulated how children and young people use the telephone. "If no effects are found, the null hypothesis holds, which states that there is no effect," said Juutilainen. However, to be on the safe side, Kari Jokela (STUK) still advises limiting children's use of mobile phones even though this is not based on any scientific principles.
The HERMO project was financed to an amount of EUR 1.6 million largely by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES), and supported by Elisa, Finnet, Nokia and TeliaSonera.
