The European Commission (EC) has decided to set the record straight after a series of confusing media reports this week suggesting the EU was considering a ban on mobile phones and Wi-Fi in schools.
The recent press reports, said EC spokeswoman Aikaterini Apostola, “result from an unfortunate confusion.”
First off, explained Apostola, “The Council of Europe is not an institution of the European Union and has no authority on the European Union,” so whatever the organization decides on Wi-Fi may well prove to be irrelevant.
Indeed, the Council of Europe (CoE), which boasts 47 member countries, is an intergovernmental body whose core objective is purportedly “to preserve and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law.” Lacking the basic authority to implement its decisions, the CoE relies on the European Court of Human Rights for formulating, promoting and implementing “human rights standards.”
When it comes to actual EU regulations, Apostola said all mobile phones and wifi equipment present on the EU market must comply with Directive 1999/5/EC on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment.
“All such equipment is presumed to be safe,” said Apostola, who explained that presumption of conformity was provided by European technical standards “developed to respect the exposure limits proposed by Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC on the limitation of the exposure of the general public to EMF. The purpose of these exposure limits is to provide a high level of protection of the health of the general public.”
This scientific validity is assessed regularly, Apostola added, noting that the latest assessment – by the independent Scientific Committee for Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) – had even been made since the adoption of the Council Recommendation.
According to that assessment, and after a “complete review” of all the scientific evidence, “no scientific rationale could be found that would justify a change in the exposure limits.” The Commission is planning to launch a new review of the scientific evidence at the end of this year, she said.
In the meanwhile, the EU subscribes to the notion that “exposure to RF fields is unlikely to lead to an increase in cancer in humans.” It does, however, believe that “as the widespread duration of exposure of humans to RF fields from mobile phones is shorter than the induction time of some cancers, further studies are required to identify whether considerably longer-term (well beyond ten years) human exposure to such phones might pose some cancer risk.”
