Jan 23 2001,
Pretoria
SOUTH Africa's Bureau of Standards (SABS) has announced the purchase of equipment worth millions of rands to monitor the effects of radiation in mobile cellular telephones.
SABS President Eugene Julies said the sophisticated monitoring equipment would help determine the exact radiation humans were subjected to while using cellular telephones.
"Since the advent of cellular telephones, there has been concern from individuals, companies and the medical fraternity [about] the effect this radiation [has]", Julies said.
SABS hopes to eventually scientifically determine which cellular telephone handsets are safe, and make recommendations on any necessary remedial action to ensure that all related instruments are as safe as possible.
SABS representative, Kenny Mathivha, said there are not yet plans to enforce radiation labelling on cellular telephones but that national maximum radiation licensing standards might be set, controlling the manufacture and import of handsets and related hardware.
The world's largest cellular telephone manufacturers, Finland's Nokia, the US's Motorola and Sweden's Ericsson, have meanwhile announced plans to develop a world standard for measuring radiation specific absorption rates (SAR) from cellular handsets.
The new SAR measure will be used to label all cellular telephones with consumer warnings, Nokia Mobile Phones representative Tapio Hedman said in a statement.
The initiative follows rising concerns about possible links between mobile telephone usage and cancer or other risks to human health. Years of industry research have not yet found health risks from cellular telephone radiation, but US-based health experts warn that more independent research is needed.
There are currently an estimated 570 million cellular telephone users globally, with Ericsson in-house forecasters expecting this to grow to 1,4 billion within the next five years.
Ericsson said it planned to start labelling telephone packages with SAR values by April, while Nokia has also committed itself but has not yet given a specific date.
The US Federal Communications Commission already requires cellular telephones to meet radiation safety standards and all manufacturers are required to give their phones' SAR levels to the commission before they are approved for sale nationally. - African Eye News Service
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