Posted on 01/24/2007 6:40:11 PM PST by blam
Mobile phone use 'linked to tumour'
By Nic Fleming
Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 25/01/2007
Long-term users of mobile phones are significantly more likely to develop a certain type of brain tumour on the side of the head where they hold their handsets, according to new research.
The results seem to suggest health risks in people who have regularly used mobiles for over 10 years
A large-scale study found that those who had regularly used mobiles for longer than 10 years were almost 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours called gliomas near to where they hold their phones.
The new research, to be published later this year in the International Journal of Cancer, is the second study to suggest increased risks of specific types of brain tumours in regions close to where mobile phone emissions enter the head.
However, a number of other studies has found no increased health risks associated with mobile phone use.
Prof Lawrie Challis, the chairman of the government-funded Mobile Telecommunications Health Research (MTHR) programme, said last week that most research had shown that mobiles were safe in the short term but that there was a "hint of something" for longer-term users.
Prof Challis, who is negotiating funding for a long-term international study, said last night: "I agree with the authors that this is a hint that needs further exploration. It's further reason why a long-term study is necessary."
Louis Slesin, the editor of Microwave News, a US newsletter on radiation and health that reported the new study, said: "We now have two tumour types found among people who use mobiles for more than 10 years shown by two different research groups. That is compelling evidence."
Researchers from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland compared the mobile phone use of 1,521 people with gliomas with that of 3,301 people without the cancers.
Before separating out long-term users or looking at the different risks of developing tumours on the side where users held the phone, the scientists found no link between mobile use and gliomas.
However when they looked only at people who had used a mobile for 10 years or more, they found that they were 39 per cent more likely than average to get a glioma on the side of their head where they held their handset.
Prof Anssi Auvinen, an epidemiologist involved in the study, said: "It seems credible as it was after long-term exposure — which makes sense in terms of the length of time it takes for tumours to develop — and it is localised to the side of the head where the handset is held."
A spokesman for the Mobile Operators Association said: "The overall results of this study do not show increased brain tumour risk in relation to mobile phone use.
"The findings related to tumour location are difficult to interpret."
Here we go, again.
If this is true, eventually the roads will be safer..
Let's all form big lawsuits. Ack...
You beat me to it. Good God. Don't these people ever give up?
You mean trailers DON'T attract tornadoes???
Having had two acquaintances diagnosed over the past couple of years with brain tumors in the area where they hold their cellphones, I'm not so sure there isn't something to this.
When I was in radio, we were instructed to limit our exposure when taking transmitter readings. Now people have miniature transmitters stuck to their heads, sometimes hours a day.
There is, however, a huge reason for downplaying and poohpoohing the possibility of a cell phone-tumor connection, namely the biggest class-action lawsuit in the history of the world.
"You mean trailers DON'T attract tornadoes???"
No its just happenstance.
Then what about that plan they had to take all the FEMA trailers away from the people in New Orleans and move them up to tornado alley to keep the tornadoes away from population centers?
Okay, I know I REALLY should have used the sarcasm tag there...:)
Four year old children were developing cataracts, basically going blind at four. The cause of the cataracts? They were watching food cook in microwaves, shoving their heads right up against the door and watching. In spite of the fact that there are screens built into the door to catch the microwaves, some escaped and caused the cataracts. Yes. I could believe that microwaves from cell phones cause tumors.
"Here we go, again."
You don't understand RF..Must be young,only talking 5 watts with a mobile..100,000 watts at the tower,but I don't recommend leaning my head against a transmmisiom tower even if it is only 5 watts.
What about micro-wave popcorn? Laptops, "The View", anti-boitic soap, liberals?
What about them?
No kidding - this has been a claim since the first handheld cell phones.
And in that time, various studies have been done to both verify the claim and to disprove it.
But then again, everything known to man causes cancer...or so it seems.
One came through the park I lived in as a kid so I personally think they do attract tornadoes.......
;-)
Hehe...great tagline, by the way!
There may possibly be a link. Who knows?
What's curious about this article is that surely it's important HOW MUCH someone uses their cell phone, as well as for how many years.
Those who use cell phones for 10 years or longer may be at risk. But how often did they talk on the phone every day?
I'm curious, because one of my daughters uses a cell phone, but only occasionally for brief calls. I should think that would be very different from walking around all day with a phone glued to the side of your head, as some people seem to do.
Evidence will be ignored, simply because it's inconvenient. Same as the evidence for abortion, breast cancer connection. We're not sure that there is a connection, but we can be damn sure of predictable human behaviour to ignore danger when it's merely inconvenient.
Ah, don't you miss it! Was it an Optimod? (I was in radio for 20 years).
There's a difference between "mobile" phones and cell phones, isn't there?
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