Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Trains 'trap mobile phone radiation'(Dated)

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 15:31:23 -0500

Trains 'trap mobile phone radiation'

 1 May, 2002, 19:01 GMT 20:01 UK

There are no rules on using phones on trains
Train passengers who hate it when other
commuters use mobile phones on board may
have every right to get angry.

Research carried out by scientists in Japan
suggests that using a mobile phone inside a
train carriage could have serious health risks
for other passengers.

They found that electromagnetic radiation
levels inside trains can exceed international
safety limits if even a small number of
passengers are using their phones.

This is because the
microwave radiation
emitted from handsets
has effectively no where
to go and simply
bounces back off the
carriage's metal
structure.

Tsuyoshi Hondou, from Tohuku University, used
the plans of a typical train carriage to
calculate the impact of mobile phone
mivrowave radiation.

Unsafe levels

He found that very little radiation managed to
escape through windows and was instead
reflected inside.

He discovered that if just 30 people in a
standard carriage with 151 passengers used
their phone radiation levels exceeded the limits
recommended by the International Committee
for Non-Ionising Radiation.

But he added that because the radiation can
build up, levels can be high in carriages with
fewer passengers.

"It's possible even if the train is not crowded,"
he told New Scientist magazine.

Mr Hondou said the findings, originally
published in the Journal of the Physical Society
of Japan, were worrying in light of the growth
in the number of people with WAP phones and
other wireless electronic devices.

He suggested train operators should consider
introducing rules on the use of mobile phones
in carriages.

But he added that the effects seen in train
carriages may also apply to buses and
elevators.

"At the moment we have no regulation on the
use of mobile phones in areas where many
people are together.

Further research

Prof Les Barclay, who is a member of the
Department of Heatlth mobile phone research
committee, suggested that the health risks
were minimal.

"Signals from the antenna and mobile phone
decrease very rapidly as you move away from
the phone," he said.

"By the time a signal has been reflected by a
distant wall it will be at a very low level."

Prof Barclay said the committee was not
planning to study the use of mobile phones on
trains.

But speaking to BBC News Online, he added:
"It is something we could look into. It would be
rather an easy job to do that kind of
assessment."

A spokeswoman for the Rail Passengers Council
said it would be interested in finding out more
about the issue.

"In terms of the health impact of using mobile
phones on trains, this is not something we
have researched in the past.

"But it is certainly something we would be
interested in. While we probably wouldn't carry
out such a study ourselves we would be
interested in any findings."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1961484.stm
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