The biggest investigation of its kind to date found that people who regularly held long daily conversations over many years may have a slight increase in the risks of developing a tumour.
Just half an hour a day on your mobile phone can increase the risk of brain cancer by a third, according to a landmark report.
But the researchers said that the results were not conclusive and that even if the risks turn out to be real this equates to just a few hundred more cases in Britain.
The £15million Interphone report, by the World Health Organisation, found those in the heaviest user category were in greater danger of developing malignant glioma tumours, which account for half of all brain tumours in the UK.
But the report’s definition of heavy use is just 30 minutes a day and regular use was at least one call per week over a six-month period.
No victims under 30 were interviewed, with the researchers admitting many young people use mobiles for an hour or more every day.
They found that tumours were more common on the side of the head where the phone was used.
Campaigners have warned the real risk may be much higher because the study did not look at other tumours including acoustic neuromas, which grow in the ears.
- Similar posts
- Two genes for aggressive brain cancer identified (26.5%)
- Mobile phones a carcinogen? (22.4%)
- Mobile phone cancer risk update (22.4%)
- Alcohol link to pancreatic cancer (16.4%)
- T-Mobile to merge with Orange? (12.7%)
Cellphones-a basic necessity to us like water, food-emit radiation that is harmful for us, a new book has suggested.
In her new book, ‘Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family,’ Devra Davis, an environmental health has probed why cell phone radiation is now a “national emergency.”
“Among the most stunning new findings is evidence that you can cause birth defects in mice embryos from cell phone radiation. Researchers at the University of Athens] looked at fatal development and studied pregnant mice exposed to smart phones. And they looked at the offspring of the mice and they found basic defects in their brain structure and skeleton,” ABC News quoted Davis as saying.
“[In one study], they showed significant damage in the exposed mice embryos. And they showed, for example, mice normally have 13 pairs of ribs and the exposed mice sometimes had less or their cartilage was ossified, meaning it was kind of fused. And they showed other defects in the skeleton and head bone that were associated with the radiation from the smartphone – to 3G [smartphones].
“Other work that’s been done has to do with damage to the ovaries and testes of the fruit fly. The fruit fly, as you may know, has been very well studied by science and they have shown that the ovaries and testes of a fruitful can be shrivelled up by radiation,” she said.
Meanwhile, the wireless industry says that the amount of radiation emitted by cell phones is very low.
“It’s not the amount of radiation, it’s the nature of the signal, because, in fact, these phones are very, very weak. They’re very low-power but it’s the pulsed, digital nature of the signal that I’m more concerned about,” she said.
In her book, Davis said the nature of the signal is especially harmful because it is constantly searching for a connection with a cell tower. Exposure is increased in areas of weak reception because the radio signal has to increase as the phone seeks a connection.
“I think the impact on fertility and sterility should be way up. Sperm naturally will die but the sperm exposed to cell phone radiation dies faster and don’t swim as well,” added Davis.
Davis also said that in addition to brain illness, memory loss is a serious issue.
MOBILE phone companies have been accused of hiding warnings about the health risks of using handsets
Phone manufacturers, including Nokia, BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone, all have small-print warnings, even though they insist that holding mobile phone handsets near the ear and head carries no health risks.
The BlackBerry manual has a warning buried in it that users should use “hands-free” or keep their phone an inch away from the body “including the abdomen of pregnant women and the lower abdomen of teenagers”.
Health experts have called for clearer warnings. Alasdair Philips, of Powerwatch, an independent organisation that investigates mobile phone safety, said: “The safety advice should be included on the boxes and far more prominently in the ‘getting started’ section of user guides and not just in the detail at the back that hardly anyone reads.”
Mobile phone safety advice focuses on limiting contact with radio frequency (RF) exposure. It is said to heat up body tissue and there is inconclusive research to suggest it may be linked to brain tumours. Most RF exposure comes from the phone antenna.
Michael Milligan, from the Mobile Manufacturers Forum which speaks for the industry, said: “Every mobile phone is tested to make sure they meet national and international exposure limits to RF emissions before they can be sold in the UK.”
Could mobile phones be giving us brain cancer? Academic and toxicologist Devra Davis, who was in the group that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, says yes.
According to Davis, an eminent American scientist and one of the country’s leading epidemiologists, the mobile phone industry spent years trying to bury scientific evidence — that it harms — to protect its USD 3 trillion, 4.6 billion-customer global business.
With mobile phone use soaring, especially among the young, Davis says a “global public health catastrophe” will be seen in as little as three years if the problem is ignored, the Daily Mail reported.
The most troubling research, she says, threatens male fertility. Research in seven countries, including the US, China and Australia, suggests that keeping a switched-on mobile phone in a trouser pocket can have a drastic effect on sperm count.
“All the research shows the same thing – if you take young men who are trying to become fathers, those who use mobile phones at least four hours a day have about half the sperm count of others,” Davis says.
“Sperm exposed to mobile phone radiation in the lab is sicker, thinner and less capable of swimming,” she adds.
Mobile phones are low-powered radio frequency transmitters which produce microwave radiation.
In a new book provocatively titled “Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What The Industry Has Done To Hide It And How To Protect Your Family,” Davis says the threat from mobile phone radiation has been underplayed for too long.
“Is it possible that the pervasive use of mobile phones is causing a host of subtle, chronic health problems, damaging our ability to have healthy children and creating long-term risks to our brains and bodies,” she asks.
Her work includes supporting research from studies in the US, Sweden, Greece, France and Russia.
For example, a team at the University Of Washington found that just two hours of mobile phone-level radiation splintered the DNA of brain cells in rats, making them similar to cells found in malignant tumours.
Davis, who is a grandmother, is worried about the effect on children, arguing that their thin, pliant skulls make them more vulnerable.
Mobile phone users in San Francisco are to become the first in the world to be told by law how much radiation is emitted by their phone.
The law has been changed to force companies to put signs in shops detailing the ‘specific absorption rate’ of each phone on sale.
The information would be similar to health warnings on fatty foods or cigarettes but the U.S. city is the first in the world to extend the concept to mobile phones.
Despite exhaustive research, evidence on whether or not using a mobile phone causes cancer is inconclusive.
American mobile phone companies have used this to attack San Francisco’s government and claim that putting such information at the point of sale will fool consumers into mistakenly thinking some phones are safer than others.
Companies that breach the rules will face £200 fines.
John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA – The Wireless Association, a trade group for mobile phone companies, said: ‘We believe there is an overwhelming consensus of scientific belief that there is no adverse health effect by using wireless devices.’
The new rules in San Francisco will be phased in from February next year and along with the health warning, which must be at least 11pts in font size, the signs will also direct consumers to where they can find more information.
The SAR is the amount of radio waves absorbed into the mobile phone user’s body tissue and is registered with the Federal Communications Commission.
The rate varies from phone to phone however in America all phones must no emit more than 1.6 watts per kilogram.
The administration of Gavin Newson, San Francisco’s mayor, on Tuesday voted 10-1 to implement the rules and final approval is due next week.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1287085/iPhones-home-city-San-Francisco-U-S-radioactivity-warnings-mobiles.html
HE health risks of using mobile phones are far higher than previously thought, scientists warned yesterday.
They claim that using a mobile for just half an hour a day raises the risk of developing brain cancer by more than 40 per cent.
With 70 million mobile phones in use in Britain – more than one per person – the findings, if proved correct, could have a huge impact on the nation’s health. But last night other cancer researchers urged caution, insisting that the scientists’ claims were “overblown”.
Those behind the new claims criticised as flawed a £15million landmark study, saying it posed “more questions than answers” over cancer dangers to mobile phone users. Lloyd Morgan, of campaign group International EMF Collaborative, said: “People should hear the message that cell phones should be kept away from one’s head and body at all times.”
The findings came after Mr Morgan and other experts reviewed the World Health Organisation’s Interphone report, one of the most comprehensive studies of the link between mobile phone use and brain cancer.
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/180978