Picture: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph
- Mobile phone "safety" accessories not proven
- New guidelines advise parents to limit children's use
- New health warnings for mobile phone use
WORRIED Australian parents are buying up radiation-proof mobile phone cases and hi-tech headsets for children, as concerns over potentially damaging emissions from wireless devices grow.
However while mobile phone "safety'' accessories have become a booming new market with parents, the Federal Government's Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency says buyers are just wasting their money, as no studies prove the devices even work.
As reported by News Limited yesterday, ARPANSA's new guidelines advise parents limit their children's use of mobile and cordless phones because of a lack of knowledge about the harm they may cause.
In a fact sheet for consumers the nuclear watchdog said parents should "exercise caution'' with mobile phones by "reducing unnecessary exposure from your handset'' and encouraging children to do the same.
However with children's use of mobile phones on the rise, stressed parents are increasingly hoping products such as "shield'' cases, which claim to direct radiation away from the head, and headsets which use "air tubes'' instead of wires will reduce the dangers for them.
Xenia Pericich of NSW company Safer Products said sales of "radiation-free'' mobile phone headsets had increased by about 35 per cent over the last two years, with colourful children's versions proving especially popular.
Steve Mylonas of MobileSafety.com.au, which sells a range of radiation protection products, also said he had seen a steady increase in sales since launching the business two years ago.
Mr Feldman said anti-radiation cases and pouches fitted with special ``radiation proof'' shields were popular sellers, as were retro handsets that plug into a mobile phone's headphone jack.
"We encourage all people to keep a distance of at least a few centimetres between the phone and the head at all times, and these accessories do that,'' he said.
However ARPANSA said it does not recommend the use of any such devices, saying their safety claims were impossible to prove.
"Although sellers of some of these devices have reported biological tests to support health claims, there is no reliable evidence that such devices provide any health benefits other than by perhaps reducing people's anxiety or by a placebo effect,'' its latest guidelines state.
A World Health Organization report cited on the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association's mobile phone safety website MobileTips.org.au said "the use of commercial devices for reducing radio frequency field exposure has not been shown to be effective''.
Australian Medical Association federal president Dr Steve Hambleton said while the health risks were low, simply putting your thumb between your ear and your phone could reduce radiation exposure.
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