IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijphth/v49y2004i1p62-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public perception of risk concerning celltowers and mobile phones

Author

Listed:
  • Hans-Peter Hutter
  • Hanns Moshammer
  • Peter Wallner
  • Michael Kundi

Abstract

Objective: The controversy about health risks of electromagnetic fields (EMF) has contributed in raising fears concerning emissions from celltowers. The study was to examine whether or not neighbours of celltowers are particularly concerned about adverse health effects of mobile phones and their base stations. Methods: Prior to information delivered by medical doctors of the Institute of Environmental Health at public hearings a questionnaire was handed out to participants asking for their personal rating of several environmental health risks including those of mobile telecommunication (n=123, response rate approx. 48%). Medical students (n=366) served as a contrast group. Results: Participants rated health risk for both, mobile phones and celltowers higher as students. A trend for higher ratings was also seen with older subjects and female sex. The risk ratings of both exposures correlated well with each other. The magnitude of the perceived risks, however, resembled that of other ubiquitous exposures like traffic noise and air pollution. Conclusion: Contrary to the claims of the telecommunication industry, opponents of celltowers generally do not express unusual fears concerning electromagnetic field exposure. The outcome of our study indicates that the risk rating is comparable with other perceived common hazards of the civilised world. It is hypothesised that offering information and participation to the concerned population will be efficient in reducing exaggerated fears. Copyright Birkhäuser-Verlag Basel 2004

Suggested Citation

  • Hans-Peter Hutter & Hanns Moshammer & Peter Wallner & Michael Kundi, 2004. "Public perception of risk concerning celltowers and mobile phones," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 49(1), pages 62-66, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:49:y:2004:i:1:p:62-66
    DOI: 10.1007/s00038-003-2094-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00038-003-2094-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00038-003-2094-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simone Dohle & Carmen Keller & Michael Siegrist, 2012. "Fear and anger: antecedents and consequences of emotional responses to mobile communication," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 435-446, April.
    2. Marie‐Eve Cousin & Michael Siegrist, 2011. "Cell Phones and Health Concerns: Impact of Knowledge and Voluntary Precautionary Recommendations," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(2), pages 301-311, February.
    3. Bernd Kowall & Jürgen Breckenkamp & Maria Blettner & Brigitte Schlehofer & Joachim Schüz & Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff, 2012. "Determinants and stability over time of perception of health risks related to mobile phone base stations," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(4), pages 735-743, August.
    4. Corinna Jenal & Sven Endreß & Olaf Kühne & Caroline Zylka, 2021. "Technological Transformation Processes and Resistance—On the Conflict Potential of 5G Using the Example of 5G Network Expansion in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-20, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:49:y:2004:i:1:p:62-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.