Mobiles do not increase cancer risk, says study
• Scientists studied 1,000 brain tumour patients
• Wider investigation into phones due later this year
Mobile phone users have no greater risk of developing brain tumours than people who have never used them, according to a detailed study of cancer patients.
Scientists questioned more than 1,000 people, 322 of whom had been diagnosed with brain tumours, about their phone usage and found no link between cancer and the length of time they had owned a mobile phone or the amount they used it. The study, by researchers in Japan, follows last year's report from the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme.
The £8.8m report, funded by the government and the mobile phone industry, concluded mobiles had no short-term health consequences for adults, but raised questions over their long-term use, after finding a slight increase in malignant brain tumours after 10 years.
The latest study is the first to take into account the variation in radiation levels that are absorbed by different parts of the brain. According to the team, there was no increase in tumours in the parts of the brain that received the most radiation.
The Japanese team, led by Naohito Yamaguchi at Tokyo Women's Medical University, interviewed patients with different kinds of brain tumour. Their history of mobile phone usage was compared with 683 healthy volunteers whose age, gender and lifestyles were chosen to match individual patients.
There was no consistent increase in the risk of brain cancer among regular mobile phone users, nor did the risk increase for people who owned phones longer, or spent more time on them, the scientists said. The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, was published yesterday in the British Journal of Cancer.
Brain tumours are relatively rare, with just over 4,100 diagnosed in Britain in 2003, less than 2% of all cancers.
The research goes further than other recent work by acknowledging that some parts of the brain are exposed to more mobile phone radiation than others, and so might be at greater risk of developing tumours. The scientists measured radiation levels from four different types of mobile phone and calculated how much radiation each part of the brain was exposed to when they were used.
With this, the team was able to work out if brain tumours had developed in areas that received the highest doses of radiation. They found that radiation levels in the tumour were lower than 0.1W per kilogram, far below the safety limit of 2W per kilogram as set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation.
The study is part of a broader investigation into the health risks of mobile phones called Interphone, which was set up by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2000. The investigation will bring together studies from 13 countries and is due to release its final conclusions later this year. "All the epidemiological studies should be included when we make our final judgment on this," said Yamaguchi. "The result of all these studies from different countries will be the most important."
Julie Sharp, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although there's been disagreement about the effects of mobile phones in the past, the great weight of evidence seems to show there's no effect on cancer risk."
Ian Sample
Tuesday February 5 2008
guardian.co.uk
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
• Scientists studied 1,000 brain tumour patients
• Wider investigation into phones due later this year
Mobile phone users have no greater risk of developing brain tumours than people who have never used them, according to a detailed study of cancer patients.
Scientists questioned more than 1,000 people, 322 of whom had been diagnosed with brain tumours, about their phone usage and found no link between cancer and the length of time they had owned a mobile phone or the amount they used it. The study, by researchers in Japan, follows last year's report from the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme.
The £8.8m report, funded by the government and the mobile phone industry, concluded mobiles had no short-term health consequences for adults, but raised questions over their long-term use, after finding a slight increase in malignant brain tumours after 10 years.
The latest study is the first to take into account the variation in radiation levels that are absorbed by different parts of the brain. According to the team, there was no increase in tumours in the parts of the brain that received the most radiation.
The Japanese team, led by Naohito Yamaguchi at Tokyo Women's Medical University, interviewed patients with different kinds of brain tumour. Their history of mobile phone usage was compared with 683 healthy volunteers whose age, gender and lifestyles were chosen to match individual patients.
There was no consistent increase in the risk of brain cancer among regular mobile phone users, nor did the risk increase for people who owned phones longer, or spent more time on them, the scientists said. The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, was published yesterday in the British Journal of Cancer.
Brain tumours are relatively rare, with just over 4,100 diagnosed in Britain in 2003, less than 2% of all cancers.
The research goes further than other recent work by acknowledging that some parts of the brain are exposed to more mobile phone radiation than others, and so might be at greater risk of developing tumours. The scientists measured radiation levels from four different types of mobile phone and calculated how much radiation each part of the brain was exposed to when they were used.
With this, the team was able to work out if brain tumours had developed in areas that received the highest doses of radiation. They found that radiation levels in the tumour were lower than 0.1W per kilogram, far below the safety limit of 2W per kilogram as set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation.
The study is part of a broader investigation into the health risks of mobile phones called Interphone, which was set up by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2000. The investigation will bring together studies from 13 countries and is due to release its final conclusions later this year. "All the epidemiological studies should be included when we make our final judgment on this," said Yamaguchi. "The result of all these studies from different countries will be the most important."
Julie Sharp, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although there's been disagreement about the effects of mobile phones in the past, the great weight of evidence seems to show there's no effect on cancer risk."
Ian Sample
Tuesday February 5 2008
guardian.co.uk
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
