In recent years, mobile phone operators have developed ever better technologies and ever higher capacities to be able to transmit increasingly high volumes of data more rapidly.

One of the newest mobile phone standards is the LTE (Long-Term Evolution, also called 3.9G). LTE is a new technology from the fourth generation of mobile communications that is based on the 3G network and, compared to the previous UMTS technology, enables significantly higher data transmission speeds.

The number of mobile phone masts erected is continually growing in order to ensure 100% coverage, even in rural areas. Mobile phone masts are now part of our everyday life, as they ensure we will have interruption-free signal wherever we are and can use mobile phones around the clock.

The downside: they radiate around the clock. Although they’re not next to our ear like a mobile phone, they are ten times as strong. Digital radio signals such as those for mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, laptops, PCs or even digital TVs or radios work with a very specific type of high-frequency electromagnetic field: these are characterised by the very rapid succession of powerful pulses and, unlike classic high-frequency radio waves, are not sent out continuously.

In the long-term we can assume that there will be more and more wireless communications which constantly and permanently expose us to electrosmog. And all this in a way and intensity that we have never experienced before. So the call for sufficient protection from mobile phone radiation is getting louder and louder.

Why threshold values are deceptive

A mobile phone is often given a SAR value (specific absorption rate).

The higher the SAR value, the more the tissue is heated by the radiation. The threshold values for electromagnetic fields in Germany are based on the recommendations of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The upper threshold recommended by the World Health Organization is 2.0 W/kg. However, the valid threshold limit is based on radiation intensity and therefore only protects against danger of warming. The existence of danger linked to the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation is completely denied and vigorously contested.

Dr Joachim Mutter writes: “It would be like saying that the health effects from smoking only occur due to warming of the lungs by the cigarette smoke during a 30-minute smoking session.”

Particular dangers to children and pregnant women

The not yet fully developed bodies of children are far more intensively affected by harmful mobile phone radiation. That is why it is not just experts who strongly suggest that children under 16 really should not use telephones, as the potential health risks of doing so are unnaturally high for children.

Due to their thinner skulls and the resulting lower distance to the mobile phone’s antenna, a child’s head and brain is exposed to twice the radiation (measured as a SAR value) an adult is exposed to.

Essentially, children and young people have a more sensitive reaction to the radiation from baby monitors, DECT cordless phones, wireless computers and WiFi routers, mobile phones and mobile phone antennas than adults.

For example, a child’s head takes in far more radiation than an adult’s due to its small size and thinner cranial bones. This makes it even more important to protect children from the dangers of electrosmog.

This also means that deeper areas in the brain are exposed to radiation – and these are particularly sensitive areas (e.g. the pituitary gland). According to current evidence, there is sound proof that mobile radiation such as that given off by mobile phones, games consoles, tablets, PCs, printers and other devices is harmful to health.

In 2007, the European Environmental Agency put the potential risk of mobile phone radiation on the same level as asbestos and PCBs. In Russia in 2007, the Russian Radiation Protection Committee (RNCNIRP) released an urgent appeal to warn against the risks of mobile phone radiation in children and young people: through the expected prolonged use of mobile phones, tumour formation is likely by age 25 to 30; by age 50 to 60, depressive syndromes, dementia and other degeneration of the cranial nerves could be expected.

Even the German Parliament issued a warning in 2003 in the Committee for Education, Research and Technology Assessment’s report (19th committee) – “Health and ecological aspects of mobile telecommunications and transmission devices – scientific discourse, regulatory requirements and public debate”, 2003, prior to this: “Children and other particularly sensitive people (editor’s note: pregnant women) should be particularly careful and/or exercise restraint when using mobile phones. If possible, general users of mobile phones should also use a headset or similar. With regard to headsets and hands-free equipment, research should be intensified as there are too few studies on this problematic area.”

The relevant European Council Committee (Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs) has also dealt with this problem and called for a turnaround in current mobile phone policy in a passed resolution. The resolution also implies that there is a danger for the population which should be taken seriously, particularly in the case of young people and children. Threshold values should therefore be urgently revised and the committee recommends that mobile phones should be banned from all schools and classrooms. In addition, all reasonable measures should be taken to reduce electromagnetic fields.