Health

Some people worry that mobile phones carry potential health risks to users and the wider public.

O2 provides information and advice on these alleged risks and contributes fully to the debate. 

We take people’s concerns seriously and put the health and safety of our customers, employees and the wider public at the top of our agenda. We include the perception of an alleged health risk from mobile communications in our consolidated Group risk register.

The debate about mobile phones and health revolves around safe levels of exposure to the radio waves (RF) emitted from mobile phones and base stations.

We ensure we operate safely and well within international exposure guidelines and we also explain how mobile network technology works.

O2 aims to provide the best information possible on health and mobile phones and to fund research into their potential health effects.

Research

We co-fund the industry’s continuing independent and peer-reviewed research into mobile phone technology and its effects on human health.

We do this under the auspices of:

• the UK’s Mobile Telecommunication and Health Research Programme (MTHR).
• the joint German Government/industry programme with Deutsches Mobilfunk Forschungsprogramm  and the Forschungsgemeinschaft Funk.
• World Health Organization International EMF project

During the year we staged an open discussion on mobile phones and health through our series of online debates. We are keen to encourage dialogue and to address any public concerns and queries.

We want to understand better people’s attitudes towards mobiles and health – and share that understanding.”
Peter Erskine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer O2 plc

“The mobile phone scare is a lesson in how journalists and policymakers should not react to concerns about a new technology.”
Adam Burgess, author of Cellular Phones, Public Fears, and a Culture of Precaution
(as quoted at the O2-sponsored Spiked-online debate ‘Mobile phones and health – What are we scared of?’).

“Having accepted that mobile phone networks, and now the latest communications systems providing data, are a necessary feature in a modern industrial and commercial country, it remains necessary, however, to understand that this new technology may still be found to have adverse effects which may only become clear after a prolonged period of years of usage of these networks.”
Alan Meyer, legal director, Mast Action UK
(as quoted at the O2-sponsored Spiked-online debate ‘Mobile phones and health – What are we scared of?’)

As well as access to information about regulations, safety guidelines and the industry's own rules on building of networks safely, we offer advice on issues such as child protection and customer safety and leaflets explaining the current scientific thinking.