New research finds no link between mobile phone and brain tumour |
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Fri, 20 Jan 2006 20:10
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LONDON: A new scientific study has come out with data suggesting use of mobile phones does not increase the risk of developing a most common form of brain tumour.
The four-year study, carried out by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and universities of Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester, found no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and glioma, a deadly form of brain tumour.
Prof Patricia McKinney of the University of Leeds, reporting the findings in the British Medical Journal, said, "Overall, we found no raised risk of glioma associated with regular mobile phone use and no association with time since first use, lifetime years of use, cumulative hours of use, or number of calls."
These findings are in line with similar findings from studies done in the United States and Europe, she added.
Anthony Swerdlow of the Institute of Cancer Research, who co-authored the report, said the survey is larger than any of the other published studies and has been a joint venture involving 13 countries.
A Swedish group of scientists, carrying out a similar study last year, had said mobile phones could pose a higher health risk to people living in rural areas because the phones tend to release more intense signals in the countryside. The present survey allayed such fears. The researchers said they did not find any increased health hazards for rural people.
McKinney and her team collected data from 966 people aged 18 to 69 years and with glioma, and 1,716 healthy volunteers about how long they had used mobile phones, the make and model, how many calls they made and how long the calls lasted.
The researchers found that there was an increased risk for tumors that developed on the same side of the head as the phone was used. Swerdlow said this higher incidence could be due to over-reporting of patients as people have a tendency to remember and/or embellish or falsely remember those things that they think might be relevant.
McKinney said there is no fool-proof evidence to show that exposure to radiofrequency fields caused the cancer.
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