Date published: 2007/07/25
The BBC says:
Mobile phone masts are not responsible for the symptoms of ill health some blame them for, a major UK study says.
Dozens of people who believed the masts trigger symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.
But when they thought the signal was on they reported more distress, suggesting the problem has a psychological basis.
However, the Environmental Health Perspectives study stressed people were nonetheless suffering "real symptoms".
"Belief is a very powerful thing," said Professor Elaine Fox, of the University of Essex, who led the three year study.
"If you really believe something is going to do you some harm, it will."
Mast Sanity, a campaign group, dismissed the findings on the basis that 12 sufferers who had initially signed up to the trials had dropped due to ill health. This skewed the results, they argued, as it elimiated those most likely to have shown an effect.
The study was funded by the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme, a body which is itself funded by industry and government.
This kind of study is largely a waste of time and money, because no matter what the evidence is, the people who suffer ill health will never believe the result, especially, as here, when the study is funded by an industry group. And as with everything other misfortune in life, people always want to blame somebody or something for their ill health.
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