Both Eircell and Esat Digifone, who between them supply mobile phone services to almost one million Irish users, have declined to comment on the latest research linking mobile phone usage with brain tumours. This is despite scientists in the US and Sweden calling for the introduction of explicit health warnings and recommending reduced usage.
In line with mobile phone manufacturers, who deny any indication of significant risk in published research, both companies said that they would comment once they had had an opportunity to examine in detail two new studies featured on last night's Panorama programme on BBC television.
Eircell, which services some 660,000 mobile phone users, said that it had no evidence to justify introducing a health warning or to recommend reduced usage. However, cancer and radiation specialists warned on the programme that mobile phone users should consider using low-emission or "hands-free" devices because of research linking usage with brain tumours.
"As of yet, there has been no sound, peer-reviewed scientific evidence to suggest that mobile phones are harmful", said Eircell's community relations manager, Ms Olivia Dobbs.
Esat Digifone, which has more than 300,000 subscribers, said that if the studies were shown to have any validity the company would "go from there".
Speaking on RTE News, Dr Carmel Mothersill, of the Dublin Institute of Technology, said that it was too early to establish a link between mobile phone usage and brain damage. A study of a large section of the mobile phone-using population would be needed to gauge the long-term effects of low-grade radiation exposure.
The team of scientists who conducted the studies said on the Panorama programme that the public should be given more detailed health information. Dr Lennart Hardell, a Swedish cancer specialist, said that there was a "biological indication of a problem" which required further research. His study of patients with brain tumours had found that people who held mobile phones to the side of their head had a 2 1/2 times greater risk of getting a tumour than non-users.
Dr George Carlo, head of a research body funded by the mobile phone industry in the US, outlined the findings of a study which had indicated increased risk of a rare type of brain tumour. It was no longer responsible for the manufacturers to say that there was no problem, he said. "We have moved now into a grey area that suggests that there could be a problem that needs to be looked at very, very carefully."
The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy, speaking on RTE's Questions & Answers, last night promised that the Government would act if there was conclusive evidence that mobile phones were damaging to health.
Ms Nuala Ahern, the Green Party MEP, called on manufacturers to comply with a European Parliament recommendation that mobile phones carry a health warning which would encourage people to use attachments rather that hold handsets directly to the side of the head.
Cellular World, a leading Irish mobile phone retailer, confirmed that there has been a big increase in demand for hands-free equipment. A spokeswoman for the company said that media coverage of possible health risks had fuelled customer demand for hands-free phones.
