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."
Come to think of it, I believe it was!
I knew it!
Yes, there is, thank you for reminding us. Cell phones are devices used in the United States, mobile phones are the same devices used elsewhere.
LOL
They are at least responsible for evolution. Lately I've seen former cell phone users who now have funny plastic things growing right out of their ears. They can even use these things to make phone calls.
My 23 year old nephew was diagnosed with a level II astrocytoma brain tumor in the area of his right ear last August. Over the last 5 years, he exclusively used a cell phone on the right side of his head. Two craneotomy surgeries later within 2 months, the surgeon thinks they were able to remove between 80-90% of the tumor. I have wondered if there was a cell phone component to this. If it didn't cause the tumor did the cell phone cause the tumor to grow at a faster rate.
Wouldn't it be easier to simply hang up the phones and talk, since they're all standing next to each other?
You forgot embryonic stem cell research.
I would like to add... TALK RADIO and PELOSI BLINKING.
Again? We've been hearing both reports for years.
Good, I hope they all die so we can have our roads, movie theaters, and restaurants back.
Perfect! These kids would rather be somewhere else, which, if you axe me, is the entire secret of the cell phone mania. Here, it's so booooooring, it's so hard! When they, or any other cell phone maniacs, get to the somewhere else, they'll want to be somewhere else yet, and will pull up their cell phones. This is a restless civilization ever of unsatisfied people, who want to be somewhere else. I mean, you go to places where people are supposed to go to rest, and what do they do? One ringa dingie, two ringa dingies...
RF for mobile phones (really rare now) is 3W max. Handhelds are only .6W max (600 mW)
I'm smart, I put the cell phone on speaker and drive with it in my lap.
Uh-oh
It is all confusing to me, heck, I live in Mobile.
Overuse of cell phones cause brain tumors? Man, I hate this. There is already a shortage of decent women in the US and this will just make it worse.
Grant shopping.
The man who sickens of his home goes out,
Forth from his splendid halls, and straight- returns,
Feeling i'faith no better off abroad.
He races, driving his Gallic ponies along,
Down to his villa, madly,- as in haste
To hurry help to a house afire.- At once
He yawns, as soon as foot has touched the threshold,
Or drowsily goes off in sleep and seeks
Forgetfulness, or maybe bustles about
And makes for town again. In such a way
Each human flees himself- a self in sooth,
As happens, he by no means can escape;
Lucretius, The Nature of Things, 55 BC
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