The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) plans to start a unique set of experiments on the effects of radiation from mobile telephones on human proteins from today, Monday.

      The test will involve a group of ten women volunteers. Each test subject will be exposed to mobile telephone radiation for an hour, after which samples of their skin will be taken from their arms to determine if the radiation has caused changes in the proteins in the body.
     
The study is being led by STUK research professor and laboratory chief Dariusz Leszczynski. Permission for conducting human experiments has been granted by the Ethical Committee of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District.

      The women in the study are STUK employees aged 18 to 60.

      "The experiments do not cause any risk to the health of the volunteers", insists Leszczynski. The group comprises women, because the possible differences in how mobile phone radiation affects men and women are not known.
     
The dose of radiation received by the subjects of the test is the same as if they spoke on a mobile telephone for an hour."

      The dose is the maximum level set by the World Health Organisation for radiation output from mobile telephones. Each test subject will be exposed to the radiation only once.

      The plans for the human experiments were first reported on Friday by the Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva.

      The tests are a continuation of previous tests by Leszczynski’s research group, in which the same factors were studied in a laboratory.

      "The health effects of the use of mobile telephones have certainly been studied in different parts of the world, but the results of the studies are rather contradictory", Leszczynski says.

      "There is insufficient evidence of the long-term health effects of the use of mobile telephones. We also do not know about how radiation from mobile phones affects children."
     
Results of the STUK experiments are expected at the end of the year. If they indicate that radiation from mobile phones really does have an effect on human protein, Leszczynski feels that it would be important to find the biochemical mechanisms that cause the changes in human cells.