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An international team of researchers has found new evidence that
long-term use of a mobile phone may lead to the development of a brain tumor on the side of the head the phone
is used.
In a study (see below) which will
appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Cancer, epidemiologists from 5
European countries report a nearly 40% increase in gliomas, a type of brain tumor, among those who had used a
cell phone for 10 or more years. The increase is statistically significant. In addition, there was a
trend showing that the brain tumor risk increased with years of use.
This is the 2nd type of tumor that has been linked to long-term cell
phone use. In 2004, the Swedish Interphone group reported a doubling of
acoustic neuromas among people who had used a mobile phone for ten years or more.
The new study, part of the 13-country Interphone
project, is based on the data collected in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the U.K.
Last year, the German Interphone team had reported an increase
in gliomas following more than ten years of mobile phone use.
The new five-country study included 1,521 glioma cases and 3,301
controls. There were 143 cases with ten or more years of mobile phone use. The earlier German study
had only 12 cases who had used a cell phone for at least ten years.
Another research group, led by Lennart Hardell of Örebro University
and Kjell Hansson Mild of the National Institute, both in Sweden, have also found an increased risk of brain
tumors and acoustic neuromas following ten years of cell phone use.
"The [new] study shows that the issue is not settled and that
more data, preferably prospective data, are needed," Anders Ahlbom of the Kaolinska Institute in Stockholm
told Microwave News.
Anssi Auvinen of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in
Helsinki, a member of the Finnish Interphone study team offered a similar conclusion. "We need more
research on long-term use," he stated in a press release issued today.
(22 January 2007)
In fact, on Saturday, the London Times revealed
that Lawrie Challis, the head of the U.K. research effort on mobile phones and
health, known as MTHR, is in the final stages of negotiations for a study of
200,000 mobile phone users who will be monitored for cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The
story appeared on the front page of the January 20th Times.
"We know from smoking and from the bomb falling in Hiroshima
that nothing was seen for ten years," Challis told the BBC.
Ahlbom said that the planned study, disclosed by Challis, will be a
joint effort of an international consortium consisting, at present, of epidemiologists from Denmark, Finland and
Sweden, as well as the U.K.
The London Times ran a companion article under the headline: "Could
These Be the Cigarettes of the 21st Century? ... 'Absolutely'." And in an editorial,
the Times applauded the decision to carry out the new long-term study: "The precautionary principle
still applies here. Manufacturers should welcome the new study."
-- Microwave News |
