No Increased Cancer Risk From Mobile Phone Use

A study of more than 420,000 mobile phone users, concludes that Long or short-term mobile phone use is not associated with increased risk of cancer.

This major study appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute website.

Whislt mobile phone antennas emit electromagnetic fields that can penetrate the human brain, the Danish team found no evidence that this was linked to an increased risk of tumours in the head or neck as had been feared.

The researchers, from the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, looked at data on people who had been using mobile phones from as far back as 1982. More than 56,000 had been using a mobile phone for at least 10 years.

They found no evidence to suggest users had a higher risk of tumours in the brain, eye, or salivary gland, or leukaemia.

Professor Tricia McKinney, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Leeds, said: "The results of this Danish cohort study are important as they have analysed data from mobile phone company records and do not rely on users remembering for up to 10 years in the past how often they used their phone.

The large numbers of subscribers in the study mean we can have some confidence in the results that have not linked mobile phone use to a risk of any cancer, including brain tumours."

The study follows a report published earlier this year by the Institute of Cancer Research, which concluded that mobile phone use was not associated with a greater risk of brain cancer. However, caution is still being advised when it comes to the use of mobile phones by children due to the fact that their head and nervous systems may still be developing.

Despite this advice, a majority of parents are ignoring it and use of mobiles ampomgst children and young people is opn the increease, whilst at the same time, campaigns against mobile phone antenaa on the top of flats or in schools continue.

However, the link with benine tumours on the eharing nerve and mobile use has indeed not been broken as reported in October 2005 based on a large EU sponsored Interphone study which takes place in 13 countries in order to investigate the association between the use of mobile phones and risk for intracranial tumours and tumours of the salivary glands (Parotis tumours).

In the published study (30 August 2005) 678 cases of acousticus neurinoma and 3553 controls were interviewed about their use of mobile phones. In the persons who reported use of a mobile phone for less than ten years no increased risk was observed.

Contrary to this observation the researchers reported that the risk for this rare tumour may be increased up to 80%.

There are more than one billion mobile phone users worldwide.

Source: BBC News Online, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology

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