Two weeks ago, the World Health Organisation warned for the first time that mobile phones may cause cancer – urging users to limit their use.
The warning followed Interphone’s research from 13 countries that found that the even just using a phone for 15 minutes a day could substatially increase the risk of a brain tumour.
But it could come to late for many mobile addicts, as it takes 15 to 20 years for primary cancers to develop – meaning the ‘timebombs’ could have already done their damage.
Graham Lamburn, technical manager at independent watchdog Powerwatch, said: ‘This research shows that heavy users are at the biggest risk and that there is a very high increase in the risk of brain cancer from just 15 minutes of mobile phone use.
‘Fifteen minutes is really not that long any more.
‘Many people use their phones for much longer than that each day now. If the indications in this study are right … then this is a potential timebomb.’
He added: ‘In 20 years’ time, we could see around 20 times the number of people with brain tumours.
‘It is now time that public health organisations take action.’
Elisabeth Cardis, who led the international study, said an increased risk of brain tumours, also known as gliomas, was seen in the 20 per cent of users with the highest exposure to emissions.
Mobile phones
She said there was an increased risk of brain cancer near to phone users’ ears – where the mobiles are held.
Those who had used handsets for 15 minutes a day for seven years, showed a 72 per cent higher incidence of gliomas.
Experts argue these figures are so high, the results are unlikely to be down to random factors and are most likely the result of mobile use.
They also claim that the true rate of the cancer risk could be up to 10 per cent higher than the research showed.
Gliomas are fatal, even with treatment, usually killing their victims within three to five years of diagnosis.
At the moment, the incidence of brain cancer in the UK is 7.7 people per 100,000.
If the levels of brain tumours increases by 72 per cent over the next seven years, it would cause the number of UK men suffering from them to rise from the current 2,223 to 3,824.
The levels for women would rise from 1,699 to 2,922.
A spokeswoman for the Mobile Operators’ Association, disputed the findings, telling the Daily Express: ‘The authors stress the uncertainty of their results and that replication is needed before a causal interpretation can be made.
‘A similar recent analysis involving seven European countries found no association between brain tumour location and position of phone use.
‘Importantly, long-term cancer registry data shows no increase in brain tumour rates despite the growth in mobile phone usage.’
He stressed that the conclusion of the Interphone study had stated that ‘the possible effects of long-term heavy use of mobile phones require further investigation’.
The spokesman said the industry was supporting further research under the auspices of the Word Health Organisation’s research agenda.
- Similar posts
- Mobile phones a carcinogen? (46.4%)
- Mobile phones and brain cancer link (20.9%)
- Mobile phones and tinnitus (16%)
- New skin cancer treatment on the way (15.3%)
- New Polio vaccine may mean the end of polio (11.7%)
A new study has revealed that children and adolescents who use mobile phones are not at a statistically significant increased risk of brain cancer compared to their peers who do not use mobile phones.
The increased usage of mobile phones among children and adolescents in recent years has raised a concern about the possibility of the development of brain tumours in this population.
It was thought that since children have a developing nervous system and because their head circumference is smaller, the radio frequency electromagnetic fields might penetrate regions that are deeper in their brains.
To determine the relationship between mobile phone usage and brain tumour risk among children and adolescents, Martin Roosli, Ph.D, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues looked at the medical records of children aged 7-19 with brain tumours, identified through population registries.
The study, conducted between 2004 and 2008, included participants from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. They looked at data for 352 brain cancer patients, and 646 control subjects.
The researchers found that patients with brain tumours were not statistically significantly more likely to have been regular mobile phone users than control subjects.
The study was published July 27 in the Journal of The National Cancer Institute.
Mounting evidence suggests there is no link between mobile phones and brain cancer, according to a review by the Institute of Cancer Research.
It stated that despite near universal mobile phone use, there had been no jump in the number of tumours.
Its report, in Environmental Health Perspectives, also identified flaws in many studies investigating a link.
A few weeks ago the World Health Organization said mobiles were “possibly carcinogenic”.
The decision by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) put mobile phones in the same category as coffee, in which a link could not be ruled out, but it could not be proved either.
One of the biggest studies into a link was Interphone, a comparison of 2,708 patients with a brain tumour (glioma) with a similar number of people without.
The study concluded that mobile phone users were less likely to get brain tumours, but heavy users had an increased risk.
Professor Anthony Swerdlow, from the Institute of Cancer Research, said there was a risk of bias when patients with brain tumours answered questionnaires about their phone use.
Ten patients in the study said they were on the phone for more than 12 hours per day.
He added that in the space of 20 years, mobile phone use had gone from being rare to 4.6 billion users worldwide.
Yet evidence from many Western countries showed “no indication of increases in brain tumour incidence”.
Professor Swerdlow said: “The trend in the accumulating evidence is increasingly against the hypothesis that mobile phone use can cause brain tumours in adults.”
Studies have looked at a link associated with 10 to 15 years of mobile phone use and it remains a possibility that longer exposure could cause cancer.
However, Professor Swerdlow argues that if studies looking at longer exposure produce similar results, then a link will become “increasingly implausible”.
He adds that “there is far less evidence of the effect of childhood exposure, but there is no reason to believe it causes tumours”.
Cancer Research UK’s Dr Joanna Owens said: “Although these researchers admit that we can’t entirely rule out the idea of a link between mobile phones and brain cancer, they remind us that in most of the research, including their large international study, mobile phone users don’t seem to be at increased risk.
“We don’t yet have data on very long-term use of mobile phones, or for the effects on cancer risk in children, so it is probably wise to encourage children to limit their mobile phone call time.”
Professor David Coggon, University of Southampton, said: “This is a carefully considered review, and the conclusions are justified.
“Mobile phones appear not to cause brain cancer in the first 10-15 years after people start using them.
“Continued research is needed in case there are harmful effects in the longer term, but the news so far is good.”