Will the Government undertake a national health audit to investigate and assess patterns of ill health amongst Australians living or working near mobile phone towers; if not, why not.

Based on advice from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), I can inform the honourable member that ARPANSA has set a public health standard for exposure to electromagnetic energy (EME). ACMA has adopted the limits of this standard in its regulation of public exposure to EME emissions from mobile phones and mobile phone towers. Advice from ARPANSA is that the weight of national and international scientific opinion is that there is no substantiated evidence that EME emissions associated with living or working near a mobile phone base-station pose a health risk.

ARPANSA monitors the World Health Organization (WHO) reviews of EME studies and WHO’s current advice is that none of the recent reviews have concluded that exposure to EME emissions from mobile phones and their base-stations cause any adverse health effects.

ARPANSA is currently initiating a mobile phone base-station audit program. It is expected that up to 12 sites will be audited each year. Sites will be selected across all the states. Audits will include the measurement of EME levels from mobile phone base-stations at sites where there is particular public concern.

Individuals in Australia who believe they have suffered ill-effects as a result of exposure to EME can lodge a written complaint with ARPANSA to be put on the Electromagnetic Complaints Register. ARPANSA will protect the privacy of complaints.

The Government provides $1 million each year to the Health and Ageing portfolio, from a levy on radiocommunication licences, for research into public health effects of EME emissions from radiocommunication devices, including mobile phones, and for a public education program.

ACMA and ARPANSA have made available a Mobile Phone Towers and EME Information Pack to further address community concerns about EME. The pack contains fact sheets on EME, deployment of mobile phone towers, mobile phone handsets and associated health issues, and information for rural communities on telecommunications facilities.