Cordless phones could be risk factor too

London, Feb 19: After cancer warnings due to mobiles, the home phone could also put your health in danger, a new study suggests. Digital wireless phones, used in millions of homes could be just as problematic as are mobiles, researchers claimed.

Digitally enhanced cordless telephones - Dects - are the main source of radiation at home where people spend a lot of time, causing frequent headaches, fatigue, heart palpitations, concentration and sleep problems, according to a recent survey by the Dutch Electrohypersensitivity Foundation. These phones operate using the same technology as wi-fi computer systems and mobile phones - with the base station acting like a miniature mobile phone mast. ''The risks are the same as for mobiles, but they haven't been studied because researchers thought the Dect operated like a landline,'' Daily Mail quoted cancer specialist Lennart Hardell from the University Hospital, Sweden as saying.

''Habitual users have a three-fold risk of acoustic neuroma (a benign tumour between the ear and brain) and a four-fold risk of a malignant brain tumour,'' stated Prof Hardell.

Its more harmful as the base station is powering up 24-hours-a-day and the handset is picking up and sending signals whenever it's held to the head, with the signal travelling through walls and ceilings too.

UNI