Additional funding for research into base stations has been announced by the UK Home Office. In one of the world’s first studies, the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme will look at the prevalence of childhood leukaemias and cancers near base stations.
Another MTHR project will consider whether exposure to RF signals is linked to symptoms reported by mobile phone users. The funding will also benefit an existing pilot study of brain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases in users, and research into TETRA radio. An international committee of experts, chaired by Prof. Lawrie Challis, manages the programme and allocates funding. He noted the “public concern” about exposure to handsets, phone masts and RF emissions and called for further “research to investigate whether they could cause health effects or not.”