An Aus$2.5m (£0.9m) research centre is to be opened in the
Australian capital, Canberra, to study possible damaging health
effects of mobile phones.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) said the
centre will study electromagnetic energy emissions from mobile
phones and mobile phone towers.
The council intends to support a Centre of Research Excellence in
Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Energy with $500,000 (£178,000) a
year for up to five years. The centre will be either an actual
physical entity or a virtual one, linking research efforts from
several different organisations.
NHMRC chief executive Alan Pettigrew said the council funded a
number of studies on radio-frequency electromagnetic energy (EME)
in such areas as neurophysiology, neuropsychology and cancer
biology.
"More studies are required to provide comprehensive evidence,"
Professor Pettigrew said.