Health Effects of Mobile Phone Usage Health Effects of Mobile Phone Usage
Angelo Levisab, Laura Masieroc
, Paolo Oriod
, Susan Biggine
and Spiridione Garbisaa


ABSTRACT
Uncertainty about the association between health risks and exposure to
radiofrequency radiation emitted by cellular and cordless mobile phones can be
addressed by a critical analysis of the methodology used in studies assessing this
relationship. Studies funded by cellphone companies give reassuring conclusions but are
affected by biases and flaws, whereas public-funded studies are without these errors and
show acute and chronic effects, including head tumors, findings supported by biological
evidence.

INTRODUCTION
We provide an overview of the relationship between exposure to cellular and cordless
phone radiofrequencies and possible health effects. One key concern is the large disparity
between the results from public- and from private-funded research. Drawing on Tomatis
(2005), founder and long-serving (1969-1993) head of International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC), the method used in many private-funded studies is such as to raise
background noise, increasing confusion, thereby making assessment of risk more difficult.
It is thus important to critically assess the scientific validity of these studies: a crucial point
we raise is the conflicts of interest often affecting the parties involved, whether individual
scientists, international journals, or safety agencies. The implications are far reaching,
going beyond the lack of awareness in mobile phone (MP) users regarding health risks, and
limited insight on potential improvements due to failures in scientific research. The prime
consequence is that collective decisions concerning how these devices should be produced
and made available are precluded by the fallacious scientific knowledge that vested
interests explicitly pursue.
A pioneer study exposing carcinogenic risk arising from MP use was published by
Hardell (Hardell et al., 2002) of the Dept Oncology, University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden.
This seminal work has now been extended by a number of notable authors: Davis (Davis,
2010) of the Environmental Health Trust, Tetom Village, WY USA; Gee (Gee, 2009) at the
European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark; Lloyd Morgan (Lloyd Morgan,
2009) in Albany, CA USA; Kundi (Kundi, 2009) at the Environmental Health Institute,
University of Vienna, Austria. In addition, one of the present authors, Levis (Levis et al.,
2011), has worked in this field for more than 10 years, and has frequently been called as an
expert witness to give evidence in the context of MP court cases.
Investigators in newer areas of research, tackling the increasing challenges of acute
and chronic effects of electrohypersensitivity, include Johansson (Johansson, 2006) at the
Karolinska Institute and Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Khurana
(Khurana, 2010) at the Australian National University Medical School, Garran, Australia;

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