Radiation from mobile phone systems: Is it perceived as a threat to people's health?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence, nature and determinants of concerns about mobile phone radiation. We used data from a 2006 telephone survey of 1004 people aged 15+ years in Denmark. Twenty-eight percent of the respondents were concerned about exposure to mobile phone radiation; radiation from masts was of concern to about 15%. In contrast, 82% were concerned about pollution. Nearly half of the respondents considered the mortality risk of 3G phones and masts to be of the same order of magnitude as being struck by lightning (0.1 fatalities per million people per year) while 7% thought it was equivalent to tobacco-induced lung cancer (approximately 500 fatalities per million per year). Among women, concerns about mobile phone radiation were positively associated with educational attainment, perceived mobile phone mortality risk and concerns about unknown consequences of new technologies. More than two thirds of the respondents felt that they had received inadequate public information about the 3G system. The results of the study indicate that the majority of the population has little concern about mobile phone radiation while a small minority is very concerned.