Cellphones Cause Cancer

More than 200,000 volunteers, including long-term users, are to be monitored for at least five years to plot mobile phone use against any serious diseases they develop, including cancer and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Professor Lawrie Challis, who is in the final stages of negotiation with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry for the £3 million that he needs to fund the study, told The Times that research has shown that mobiles are very safe in the short term but that there is a “hint of something” for people using them longer. In an interview, Professor Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, and chairman of the government-funded mobile telecommunications health research programme, emphasised that the “hint” was just that. One European study has found a slight association and using a mobile for more than ten years. The few long-term users developed more acoustic neuroma brain tumours which were found close to the ear used for phoning.

A science of ifs, buts and maybes . . .

2006 Largest study yet, of 420,000 Danish users for up to 21 years, ruled out any large effect on any cancer after short or long-term use
A raised risk on the side on which sufferers said they used their phones was balanced by a decreased risk on the other side which led the scientists to suggest recall bias as the likely explanation. They said no firm conclusions could be drawn

2006 US study suggested lower sperm counts among heavy users. It is widely thought that this reflects another aspect of heavy users’ lifestyles, such as stress or a lack of exercise

2005 Interphone international study finds no effect on acoustic neuroma for ten years of use. It was unable, however, to rule out an effect for longer-term use, because of insufficient data

2004 Study suggests users have a higher risk of brain cancer if they live in rural areas. It has been suggested that this could reflect the higher strength of signal in areas with few base stations

2003 Swedish study suggests higher risk of acoustic neuroma among heavy users of analogue mobile phones, which have since been phased out. Scientists criticised the methodology of the research

2002 Finnish research suggests that phone emissions can cause abnormalities in blood vessel cells in the laboratory. Scientists that said it was not possible to draw conclusions for phone safety for real people