There is no persuasive evidence that normal mobile phone usage or exposure to pylons and power lines causes harmful health effects, such as cancer, according to Europe’s largest body of engineering and technology professionals. The findings are published as part of a new Position Statement from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Its Biological Effects Policy Advisory Group (BEPAG) says that the overwhelming majority of the evidence does not indicate that normal exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields has harmful health effects.

Professor Tony Barker, a Fellow of the IET and chairman of BEPAG, said: “There is still a huge amount of interest in whether exposure to mobile phones and electricity pylons has harmful health effects.

“However, over the years the conclusion of most scientific bodies, including the Institution of Engineering and Technology, has remained substantially the same - that there is no persuasive evidence of this.

“The absence of robust new evidence of harmful health effects in the past two years is reassuring and is consistent with findings over the last two decades.”

The Position Statement reviewed 813 scientific papers.  Of these, 44 per cent covered static and low frequencies, typically associated with power generation and distribution. 46 per cent of the papers dealt with radio-frequency fields, and 64 per cent of these were specifically related to mobile phone frequencies.