According to this study, cordless phones, cordless base stations next to the bed and cell phones do not result in an excess risk of headache, sleeping problems or cancer. These results were presented by the German health minister, Sigmar Gabriel, and representatives of the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, the Federal Office for Protection from Radiation, in Berlin.
The Euro17m (£13.4m; $26.4m) research programme was jointly funded by the environment ministry and the telecommunication companies, a fact that was criticised by Friends of the Earth Germany for lack of independence. However, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection said that the companies had no influence on the research.
The programme included projects that looked mainly at the effects of electromagnetic radiation from phones in cell culture and in animals, dosimetry studies, and epidemiological studies that assessed the health risks across the user population.
The results of the German studies will be combined with the as yet unpublished case control study called Interphone, an international World Health Organization study coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon. It is expected that the study will include about 6000 cases of gliomas and meningiomas, 1000 cases of acoustic neuroma, and 600 cases of parotid gland tumours. The patients and control participants were interviewed about their use of mobile and cordless phones
