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・これは、2014年2月11日にジャーナリスト向けに発行したサイエンス・アラートです。

・記事の引用は自由ですが、末尾の注意書きもご覧下さい。

＜海外SMC発サイエンス・アラート＞ 

携帯電話が健康に悪影響を与える証拠は見つからず

携帯電話が人体に与える影響を探るため、11年前に開始された英国最大の影響調査「携帯通信と健康影響調査プログラム(Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme; MTHR)」が、このたび最終報告書を発行しました。
以下、報告書のポイントです：

• この研究は、携帯電話、あるいは基地局がもたらす健康リスクに関して科学的証拠が無かった11年前に開始された(2007年に中間報告書が出ている）。
• 研究チームは大規模な疫学調査に基づき、生物学的影響、又は悪影響を与える証拠は見つからないと発表。
• 妊娠中の女性から生まれる子どもががんを発症するリスクや、白血病を発症する健康リスクは確認されないと結論づけた。
• 組織、細胞レベルでの研究も行われたが、疫学調査と同様、悪影響は確認されなかった。
• この調査は、英国政府や通信業界から1360万ポンド（約22億円）が投じられている。
• 全ての研究は、資金の流れが調査結果に影響を与えないよう、独立した委員会の監視のもとで行われた。

【参考リンク】

・Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme; MTHR リンク

【コメント原文】

No evidence of biological or adverse health effects from mobile phone technology

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS & HEALTH RESEARCH (MTHR) PROGRAMME – FINAL REPORT PUBLISHED

The UK’s largest programme of research into possible health risks from mobile phone technology has today published its final report, and finds no evidence of biological or adverse health effects.  The report summarises studies completed since an earlier report in 2007.

The research programme found no evidence that exposure to base station emissions during pregnancy affects the risk of developing cancer in early childhood, and no evidence that use of mobile phones leads to an increased risk of leukaemia.

Professor David Coggon, Chairman of MTHR, said “When the MTHR programme was first set up, there were many scientific uncertainties about possible health risks from mobile phones and related technology.  This independent programme is now complete, and despite exhaustive research, we have found no evidence of risks to health from the radio waves produced by mobile phones or their base stations. Thanks to the research conducted within the programme, we can now be much more confident about the safety of modern telecommunications systems.  To be sure that there are no delayed adverse effects, which only become apparent after many years, the programme provided funding to set up an epidemiological investigation (the COSMOS study) which will follow-up a large population of mobile phone users long-term.  Future Government support for this study and any new research on mobile phones and health will be managed by the Department of Health.”

Recognising concerns among members of the public and workers in the emergency services, the MTHR programme included large and well-designed investigations into the possible effects of emissions from TETRA radios and base stations that are used by the emergency services. Reassuringly this research found no evidence for adverse effects associated with exposure. 

The programme also included research to investigate whether the modulation of radio signals that is used to encode speech and data for telecommunications could elicit specific effects in cells or tissues. No effects were found in any of the experiments, which used a wide range of tissue types and endpoints. When taken together with the results from provocation studies described in the previous MTHR report, this now constitutes a significant body of evidence that modulation of signals does not lead to health risks.

The £13.6 million MTHR programme has been jointly funded by the UK government and the telecommunications industry.  Throughout its existence, the programme has been overseen by an independent Programme Management Committee (PMC), to ensure that none of the funding bodies could influence the outcomes of the research.  The PMC selected and monitored all studies in the programme.

This report effectively brings the programme to a conclusion after 11 years of detailed research and, when taken together with the earlier 2007 Report, provides a complete summary of the projects supported. It also summarises work undertaken to improve the assessment of exposures, and includes detailed descriptions of the exposure systems used for the provocation studies in the programme. Most of the research results generated by the programme have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature, resulting in around 60 papers.

MTHR P/10                                                                                                                        
10 February 2014                                                                                                       
NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme was set up in response to the research recommendations contained within the ‘Stewart Report’ published in May 2000.

The Programme received approximately £13.6 million of funding from a variety of government and industry sources.

To ensure the independence of the research carried out, scientific management of the programme was entrusted to an independent Programme Management Committee made up of independent experts, mostly senior university academics. Funds contributed by the sponsors of the Programme were managed on behalf of the Committee by the Department of Health as Secretariat to the Programme.

The first Chairman of the Programme Management Committee was Sir William Stewart. Professor Lawrie Challis became chairman on Sir William’s retirement in November 2002, and was succeeded as chairman by Professor David Coggon in January 2008.

The Programme was set up in 2001 and has supported 31 individual research projects, mostly undertaken in UK universities. Of these, one remains ongoing and will be managed as part of the Department of Health’s Policy Research Programme. All the remaining projects have been completed and most results have been published in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals (almost 60 papers to date).

The results of the programme are summarised in the Report 2007 and the Report 2012. Both reports outline the state of knowledge at the time of the Stewart Report and the current state of knowledge, taking account of both research supported by the Programme and that carried out elsewhere. The latest report also includes advice to the Department of Health on future research priorities.

Both reports and details of all the projects supported by the Programme are published on its website (http://www.mthr.org.uk).