Is your mobile 'worst for radiation'?

Parents who gave their children mobile phones for Christmas despite health risk fears can now check the phones' safety on an internet league table.

The scale of public anxiety is reflected in the fact that the website has already had more than 4.5 million hits this year.

Medical author Dr Patrick Dixon is so concerned about the potential side effects of mobiles he has compiled tables of popular models and the amount of radiation they generate, and posted them on the web.

Dr Dixon, author of The Genetic Revolution, said: "There will be many parents who bought mobile phones for their children for Christmas and some will have bought them phones that emit very high levels of electro-magnetic radiation.

"Mobiles vary enormously in the amount of radiation they emit. Along with the growing unease about the risks, there is more and more evidence of the dangers of mobile phone radiation on human health, and people need to be made aware of the dangers."

Radiation emissions are measured in SARs (Specific Energy Absorption Rates) which show the amount of radiation absorbed by the human brain. According to Dr Dixon's tables, which are based on figures from the National Physical Laboratory, some of the most popular mobiles in the UK have relatively low SAR levels.

He said: "The Nokia 2110, Nokia 5110 and Nokia 6110 are all popular and all have quite low SAR levels, ranging from 0.29 to 0.44, so parents who have given their children these phones will be relieved. Other mobiles with low SAR levels include the Bosch World 718, the Ericsson GA628 and the Motorola Star V3688.

"However another popular mobile is the Nokia 3210, which has a comparatively high SAR at 1.24.

"It is very confusing for people but I hope that by next Christmas manufacturers will have been put under great pressure to put on the packaging details about how much radiation each phone emits. This will help customers to decide which to buy."

The tables are found on Dr Dixon's website globalchange.com , which also details research into the effects of mobile phones on human health.

One Swedish study of 11,000 mobile users found that symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and burning sensations on the skin were more common among those users who made longer calls.

Dr Dixon said: "There is more and more evidence showing that mobile phone use causes changes in human cells, some of which are directly obvious such as the warming of tissues after a call. In animals there is some evidence that a high dosage of electro-magnetic radiation can encourage formation of cancers, although whether this happens in humans as well is as yet unclear."

He added that he was happy for most of his children to have mobiles: "I have young children and I let all of them have mobile phones except the youngest who, at 11, is I think too young. Children have thinner skulls at that age and I do not think it would be wise.

"However mobiles are useful for children and it is reassuring to think that you can contact them in an emergency or vice versa. As long as my children are not clamped to their mobiles for an hour every day, I am not too worried."