The Airwave Health Monitoring Study will examine any possible impact of the use of Airwave on the health of police personnel and at the same time improve upon previous study designs by including:
Of the epidemiological studies that have previously investigated conventional mobile phone use and health, the results so far have provided no persuasive evidence of any adverse health effect (Rothman et al. 1996, Dreyer et al. 1999, Hardell et al. 1999, Muscat et al. 2000, 2002, Inskip et al. 2001, Johansen et al. 2001). As a whole, these studies have been limited by a lack of detailed information on mobile phone use, insufficient numbers of participants (with insufficient statistical data to detect possible health effects) and various methodological drawbacks. However, no human epidemiological or occupational study has yet explored the possible short-term or long-term health risk associated with TETRA exposure.
Relatively few occupational studies have examined the relationship between microwave radiation and health, and no large-scale study has ever been established among the police force in the UK. Table 1 in the Detailed References reviews the main relevant occupational cohort studies of microwave exposure and health to date. All the studies were conducted in the United States. The police cohort studies were relatively small (25,000) and without the necessary statistical power required to investigate rare diseases such as malignant brain tumour. In contrast, the larger occupational cohorts by Robinette et al. (1990) among US Naval personnel (ca.40,000), Morgan et al. (2000) among Motorola employees (195,775) and Grayson (1996) among US Airforce personnel (880,000 at baseline) were sufficiently powered to investigate rare health outcomes. In the study of Grayson (1996) there was a small but (marginally) statistically significant association between brain tumour risk and RF/microwave exposure (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.01 - 1.90).
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