Two Swedish men, both extensive mobile phone users for many years, went blind in one eye - on the side of the head they used their phone.

In the first case, symptoms began with intense pain in one eye which was eventually diagnosed as ulcers on the cornea. When his vision suddenly became blurred it was discovered he had a blood clot and the eye could not be saved. In the second case a blood clot was also diagnosed.

There were two other people in the same town who attributed their loss of sight in one eye to their mobile 'phone.

ANOTHER ARTICLE BELOW

One health issue around mobile phones which has not received much attention is the possible radiation damage to users’ eyes. This is about to change. The Canadian Government is considering removing the exemption it had previously given mobile phones and walkie-talkies from eye radiation safety limits.

The original work on radiation eye damage was conducted by Henry Kues of John Hopkins University, Laurel (US). He showed that pulsed signals (like those used by digital phones) showed the strongest effects, even at levels as low as 2.6 watts per kilogram. When people using anti-glaucoma drugs were exposed the damage to the cornea was hugely magnified, with detectable effects at specific absorption rates as low as 0.26 Watts per kilogram (W/kg). Health Canada are now carrying out their own research in conjunction with the Eye Institute of Ottawa University as part of a review of the regulations.

The safety level at that time was 0.2 W/kg, which Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia claimed their phones easily met. The main problem will be for walkie-talkies which are higher-powered and tend to be used in front of the face.

The detrimental effect of exposure to radio frequency and microwaves was further confirmed by three studies from Eastern Europe:

• A study involving 966 children aged 9-18 found significant differences in memory, attention, reaction time and neuromuscular endurance in those living in front of a radio station. The station emitted short 0.8 millisecond pulses of 154162Mhz every 41 milliseconds, giving a rate of just over 24 pulses per second

• A study of Latvian cows near the same radio station found evidence of genetic changes caused by non-thermal levels of pulsed radio frequency radiation (Ed. - the possibility of non-thermal damage is currently denied in the UK)

• A vast study involving all Polish military personnel 1971-1985 (1.9m people) found that those occupationally exposed to radio frequency or microwaves had double the risk of developing cancer overall, up to six times the risk of contracting Hodgkin’s lymphoma, eight times the risk of acute myeloblastic leukaemia and thirteen times the risk of chronic myelocytic leukaemia

In 2002, the UK's National Radiological Protection Board's Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation published a 24-page overview of research* suggesting links between exposure to power frequency electromagnetic fields and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Motor Neurone Disease (MND). One major omission in the publication, however, was J.D. Mitchell's paper Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: toxins and the environment (published in the journal Alzheimer's Disease and other Motor Neurone Disorders 2000;1-4:235-50) which covers electrical biological effects in great detail.

* ELF Electromagnetic Fields and Neuro-degenerative Disease may be ordered (£10) or downloaded from the NRPB website: www.hpa.org.uk/radiation. For more information contact: The National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0RQ % 01235 831600 email: nrpb@nrpb.org