A SOUTHAMPTON study to see if the use of mobile phones affects hearing is drawing to the end of its first phase.

Scientists at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the city's university are carrying out the study into potential adverse effects of GSM cellular phones on hearing as part of a joint project funded by the European Commission.

The aim of the study is to confirm that the low-intensity electromagnetic fields used by mobile phones have no measurable effect on the human hearing system.

The Southampton sector of the project involves testing the hearing of 30 healthy young adults and is led by Prof Mark Lutman, head of hearing at ISVR.

Prof Lutman said: "Recent media reports on the effects of mobile phones on the brain have caused anxiety among mobile phone users.

"There is currently no evidence to suggest that the electromagnetic fields produced by these phones have no measurable effects on a person's hearing.

"The most we expect is possibly a small amount of localised heating to the head while the phone is being used. However, this is the first study of its kind on humans, so we are open to new evidence."

The experiment is being carried out in two parts. The first will involve exposing the participants to mobile phone electromagnetic fields at frequencies of 900 and 1,800 MHz for a short period of time in order to investigate whether such short term exposure has any measurable effect on hearing.

The second will compare hearing thresholds between groups of frequent and infrequent mobile phone users.

Exposure consists of speech at a typical conversational level delivered through a tube to one ear, plus the specified phone radiation exposure at the normal output of a popular mobile phone model at full power, for ten minutes.

The results of the first phase of the study will be available in December.