Mobile Phones - Reducing Your Exposure

[Home Page] [Reduce your exposure: Mobile Phones | Phone Masts | Powerlines] [Screening Materials] [Online Store]

Ideally of course, you should simply find an alternative to needing to use your phone, and not carry it around with you when you don't need it. However, if you feel you cannot possibly live without it and must have it with you, the following guidelines should provide a relatively simple way of taking solid steps to reducing your exposure. If you would like more information on this topic, please read our publication, Mobile Phone Masts and wireless computing, which contains far more information on this subject. We also extensively cover this area in our subscription area.

Reducing Exposure - using your existing phone

• Use your phone only when necessary, and keep the call short.
• Where possible, try to only use your phone in areas with the best signal, as this can reduce the emissions by up to 500 times.
• Indoors, use your phone near the window and make sure it is between your body and the window.
• Hold the phone away from your body immediately after dialling, as the phone uses maximum power until the call is connected.
• Where possible, do not hold the phone next to your eyes, breasts, testicles, kidneys, liver or abdomen if pregnant - ideally, keep the phone away from your body (such as in a bag) when it is not in use.
• If you have to keep it next to your body, a location such as rear trouser pocket will help keep it away from major organs, and try to make sure the antenna is on the outer side.
• Using a mobile phone in a car or train traps the fields inside the metal frame of the vehicle, and should be avoided except in an emergency.
• If you are not imminently expecting a phone call, you can greatly reduce your exposure by having the phone switched off when you carry it around instead of just on standby, as your phone contacts the nearest mast every time you move into a different masts coverage, and also checks regularly even when you are stationary - This contact is always made at the phone's full power.

Buying a new phone and / or its associated protective equipment.

• Buy a phone with a long 'talk time', this normally means a more efficient phone.
• Phones with external antennas are more likely to focus the radiation further away from your head, and are favourable to internal antenna models.
• Buy a phone with a low SAR, but don't rely on that to guarantee your safety. SARs vary by a factor up to about 5. Some high SAR phones are actually very efficient and normally work at low power, some low SAR phones are inefficient and normally have to work at high power. The smaller phones often have higher SARs and therefore are likely to produce higher exposure levels.
• Your exposure can be greatly reduced by using an air-tube hands-free kit.
• Do not rely on unscientific 'gizmos' to give you the protection you need. If you wish to use one, use your common sense as well.

Mobile Phone Masts - Reducing Your Exposure

[Home Page] [Reduce your exposure: Mobile Phones | Phone Masts | Powerlines] [Screening Materials] [Online Store]

Unfortunately, with coverage in the UK approaching 99% of the population and mobile phone reception available on Mount Everest, it is virtually impossible to escape from mobile phone radiation, especially in your own home.

However, despite phone coverage being so ubiquitous, most houses have fields below those at which scientific studies are finding health effects. To discover if the fields in your home are a problem, you really need to measure them. EMFields sell and hire a good range of easy to use equipment, calibrated where appropriate.

Although you can't directly lower the fields that the phone mast is emitting, you can screen your house effectively in a wide variety of ways that lower the fields within your house by several orders of magnitude. EMFields supply thoroughly tested screening material and military-tested paint, or you can read further details of our thoughts on screening.

Reducing your Exposure from Powerlines

[Home Page] [Reduce your exposure: Mobile Phones | Phone Masts | Powerlines] [Screening Materials] [Online Store]

Powerlines come in different shapes and sizes. The highest power ones (400 kilovolts or kV) are the long-distance lines from the generating power station to the places where the power is needed. The pylons supporting these power cables are large, metal structures, which have long strings of insulators from which the cables hang. The smallest 230 volt lines start from local substations and supply the power needs for a relatively small area. In between these two extremes are a variety of other types of lines carrying different voltages.

There are two types of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) associated with powerlines; electric fields and magnetic fields. These are at their highest to either side of the central cable of large lines, and underneath the cables (which tend to be one on top of the other, or 'plaited' together) of smaller lines. The EMFs come from the cables, not the pylons as the pylons are insulated from the fields generated. As you move away from the line, the fields begin to drop away. How far they extend depends on the line voltage for the electric field, and the power being supplied for the magnetic field.

Reducing your exposure from Electric fields

Homes will be screened from electric fields by the building materials used in their construction. All materials reduce electric fields, some better than others. The exception to this is window glass (whether single or double glazed) which hardly reduces electric fields at all.

• To reduce electric fields coming through windows from powerlines, you would need to use a wire mesh frame attached to the outside of the window. We recommend 6 mm mesh, though you might find bigger mesh sizes also effective (and would let through more light). You might want to experiment. It is then important to earth the wire mesh frame.

Gardens will not be screened by building materials.

• You might be able to reduce the fields a little by planting trees and bushes. 'Sappy' trees (some pines, cherry, etc) are better than non-sappy trees at reducing field levels. Deciduous trees are less good in winter when they lose their leaves.

Reducing your exposure from Magnetic fields

There is absolutely nothing you can do about magnetic fields. Lead or steel sheets are ineffective. There is a metal called mu-metal which does reduce the fields, but it is very expensive. Mu-metal foil is for use in audio processes and is not suitable for screening magnetic fields from powerlines.

Other possibilities

The cables on local supply lines can be either 4 individual ones, or sometimes, they are twisted together forming what is known as ABC (aerial bundled conductor) cabling. Fields are lower from ABC cabling than from the 4 individual cables.

• Encourage your local electricity company to replace 4 individual cables with ABC cabling. They may be willing to consider this 'for maintenance' reasons.

Power cables can be undergrounded. Electric fields will be absorbed by the earth above a buried cable. Magnetic fields will be higher immediately above an underground cable than they will be below an overhead line, because you are closer, but the fields reduce much more quickly from an underground cable. The Electricity Association reckons the cost of putting cables underground is twenty times higher than allowing them to go overhead, less for lower-voltage lines.

• You could try to negotiate undergrounding the powerline. The Electricity Association will expect you to bear the cost.

High electric fields around power cables attract all sorts of airborne pollutants, if you live in an area where these are generated, such as near a main road, chemical factory, sprayed fields, etc. These are then deposited downwind or in rain.

• Close your windows and don't go out in the garden when the wind blows from the powerlines to your home, if you live in a place where pollutants could be a problem.