Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research the Government has commissioned on the potential effect of non-ionising electromagnetic radiation on people's health and in particular on (a) the eye and (b) skin.

The Department has supported research in relation to concerns that there might be adverse effects from exposure to the low levels of radiofrequency radiation, or radio waves, from mobile phones and base stations.

The independently managed Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme ran from 2001 until 2012 and funded 31 projects, leading to over 60 publications. Information about the MTHR programme and the studies it supported can be found at the following link:

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/http://www.mthr.org.uk/

MTHR research has considered symptoms in relation to the skin and the eyes. None of the research supported by MTHR has demonstrated that biological or adverse health effects are produced by radiofrequency exposure from mobile phones or base stations.

The Department continues to support research on exposure to radio waves, including the ongoing Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health (COSMOS) and the Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phone studies (SCAMP) at Imperial College London. Information about these studies can be found at the following links:

http://www.thecosmosproject.org/

http://www.scampstudy.org/