Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Dec 1997

Vol. 485 No. 3

Written Answers. - Mobile Phones.

Trevor Sargent

Question:

198 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine that mobile phones were having a proven adverse effect on cardiac pacemakers; and the action, if any, his Department intends to take on these reports. [23374/97]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

I presume that the Deputy is referring to the article "Inference with cardiac pacemakers by cellular telephones" which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 22 May 1997. I have asked my Department's chief medical officer to examine this report and to advise me of any relevant implications.