A Dutch government-sponsored study found that there was statistically significant increase in complaints of headaches, dizziness and "tingling" within groups of people exposed to radio emissions identical to those emenating from 3G base stations.
The Dutch research team found that both average subjects and those that described themselves as "hyper-sensitive" to radio wave forms developed symptoms.
Dr. Colin Roy, director of the non-ionising radiation branch of ARPANSA said that the study would attract curiosity but was unlikely to influence public health policy at this stage.
"It's probably just another paper that is interesting, people will certainly pore over and probably, in the end, we'll say 'we'll have to wait for replication to consider this further' -- and in the mean time something else might come out," said Roy.
According to Roy, studies linking radio emissions to serious medical conditions such as cancer were more likely to carry weight with communications standards bodies.
"The sort of thing that you're trying to protect against is going to carry a lot more weight... the worst aspect of this is the feeling of, if you like, 'unwell-being'," said Roy.
Roy added that ARPANSA was yet to receive reports of parts of the Australian population living near 3G base stations complaining of ill-health.
The study appears to have contradicted popular wisdom regarding mobile phone emissions in the science community, which has focused its concern on the pulse-type wave forms used for conventional GSM services.
"I think you'd expect the opposite... I think you might expect if there was going to be an affect on biological systems you might more expect it with the GSM, 2G system than [3G]," said Roy.
ARPANSA launched its Electromagnetic Radiation Health Complaints Register in July and is currently conducting a survey of populations living near base stations in the greater Sydney region.
