Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Article
  • Published:

Call-related factors influencing output power from mobile phones

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 16, pages 507–514 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Mobile phone use is increasing but there is also concern for adverse health effects. Well-designed prospective studies to assess several health outcomes are required. In designing a study of mobile phone use, it is important to assess which factors need to be considered in classifying the exposure to radiofrequency fields (RF). A pilot study was performed in Sweden and in the UK 2002 to 2003 to test the feasibility of recruiting a cohort of mobile phone users from a random population sample and from mobile phone subscription lists for a prospective study. As one part of this pilot study, different factors were evaluated regarding possible influence on the output power of the phones. By local switch logging, information on calls made from predefined subscriptions or dedicated handsets were obtained and the output power of phones during calls made indoors and outdoors, in moving and stationary mode, and in rural as well in urban areas were compared. In this experiment, calls were either 1, 1.5 or 5 min long. The results showed that high mobile phone output power is more frequent in rural areas whereas the other factors (length of call, moving/stationary, indoor/outdoor) were of less importance. Urban and rural area should be considered in an exposure index for classification of the exposure to RF from mobile phones and may be assessed by first base station during mobile phone calls or, if this information is not available, possibly by using home address as a proxy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • AGNIR. Health Effects from Radiofrequency Electromagnetic fields. Doc NRPB, 2003: 14: 2.

  • Ahlbom A., Green A., Kheiftes L., Savitz D., and Swerdlow A. Epidemiology of health effects of radiofrequency exposure. Environ Health Perspect 2004: 112: 1741–1754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ardoino L., Barbieri E., and Vecchia P. Determinants of exposure to electromagnetic fields from mobile phones. Radiat Prot Dosimetry 2004: 111: 403–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auvinen A., Hietanen M., Luukkonen R., and Koskela R.S. Brain tumors and salivary gland cancers among cellular telephone users. Epidemiology 2002: 13: 356–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg G., Schüz J., Samkange-Zeeb F., and Blettner M. Assessment of radiofrequency exposure from cellular telephone daily use in an epidemiological study: German Validation study of the international case–control study of cancers of the brain – INTERPHONE-study. J Expos Anal Environ Epidemiol 2005: 15: 217–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bit-Babik G., Chou C.K., Faraone A., Gessner A., Kanda M., and Balzano Q. Estimation of the SAR in the head and body due to radiofrequency radiation exposure from handheld mobile phones with hands-free accessories. Radiat Res 2003: 159: 550–557.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dawe A.S., Smith B., Thomas D.W., Greedy S., Vasic N., Gregory A., Loader B., and de Pomerai D.I. A small temperature rise may contribute towards the apparent induction by microwaves of heat-shock gene expression in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Bioelectromagnetics 2006: 27: 88–97.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • de Pomerai D., Daniells C., David H., Allan J., Duce I., Mutwakil M., Thomas D., Sewell P., Tattersall J., Jones D., and Candido P. Non-thermal heat-shock response to microwaves. Nature 2000: 405: 417–418.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hardell L., Carlberg M., and Mild K.H. Case–control study of the association between the use of cellular and cordless telephones and malignant brain tumors diagnosed during 2000–2003. Environ Res 2006: 100: 232–241.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hardell L., Hallquist A., Mild K.H., Carlberg M., Pahlson A., and Lilja A. Cellular and cordless telephones and the risk for brain tumours. Eur J Cancer Prev 2002: 11: 377–386.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ICNIRP Guidelines. Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (up to 300 GHz). Health Phys 1998: 74: 494–522.

  • Leszczynski D., Joenvaara S., Reivinen J., and Kuokka R. Non-thermal activation of the hsp27/p38MAPK stress pathway by mobile phone radiation in human endothelial cells: molecular mechanism for cancer- and blood–brain barrier-related effects. Differentiation 2002: 70: 120–129.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lönn S., Ahlbom A., Hall P., and Feychting M. Mobile phone use and the risk of acoustic neuroma. Epidemiology 2004a: 15: 653–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lönn S., Forssén U., Vecchia P., Ahlbom A., and Feychting M. Output power levels from mobile phones in different geographical areas; implications for exposure assessment. Occup Environ Med 2004b: 61: 769–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiart J., Dale C., Bosisio A.V., and Le Cornec A. Analysis of the influence of the power control and discontinuous transmission on RF exposure with GSM mobile phones. IEEE Trans EMC 2000: 42: 376–385.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR). TeliaSonera in Sweden and Vodafone in the UK provided data on output power levels and are gratefully acknowledged. Ericsson AB in Sweden and Vodafone in the UK are also thanked for providing mobile phones (Sweden) and specially adapted test phones for the study and technical advice (UK). We thank Anders Larsson for his work on the Swedish data set.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lena Hillert, Anders Ahlbom, Maria Feychting & Lars Järup

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Occupational Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lena Hillert

  3. Stockholm Centre for Public Health, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lena Hillert & Anders Ahlbom

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK

    David Neasham, Lars Järup, Roshan Navin & Paul Elliott

Authors
  1. Lena Hillert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anders Ahlbom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. David Neasham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Maria Feychting
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Lars Järup
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Roshan Navin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Paul Elliott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lena Hillert.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hillert, L., Ahlbom, A., Neasham, D. et al. Call-related factors influencing output power from mobile phones. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 16, 507–514 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500485

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500485

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links