Aussie news 7 : theme : health : Industry study shows brain tumour link to heavy mobile phone usage

A LONG-awaited international study of the health risks of mobile phones has linked extended mobile phone use to an increased risk of developing brain tumours.


The 10-year Interphone study, the world's biggest study of the health effects of mobile phones, found while there was no increased risk of cancer overall, those in the top 10 per cent of phone use are up to 40 per cent more likely to develop glioma, a common type of brain cancer.

Just 30 minutes of mobile talk time daily was enough to put participants into the top 10 per cent category in the study, carried out in 13 countries, including Australia, and involving more than 5000 brain cancer patients worldwide.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, which conducted the study and has repeatedly delayed its publication, summarised the findings by saying there were "suggestions of an increased risk of glioma, and much less so meningioma, in the highest decile (10 per cent) of cumulative call time, in subjects who reported phone use on the same side of the head as their tumour".

It added "biases and errors limit the strength of the conclusions that can be drawn . . . and prevent a causal interpretation".




But the finding - reported by British newspapers yesterday ahead of its official scheduled release this week - has nevertheless ignited controversy among cancer experts, neurologists and other scientists.



Australian neurosurgeons Charlie Teo and Vini Khurana said last night the findings were a concern. "Despite the study's methodological limitations that biased it towards finding nothing, the heaviest users were found to be at significantly higher risk of glioma, which is consistent with our message," Drs Teo and Khurana told The Australian.



"This (finding) does concern us, but it's also an impetus to do two things: the mobile phone industry has to supply the actual hours logged, and we need to track brain tumour incidence in Australia."



Other experts sought to reassure the public over the findings. IARC director Christopher Wild said an increased risk of brain cancer was "not established from the data from Interphone".



"However, observations at the highest level of cumulative call time and the changing patterns of mobile phone use since the period studied by Interphone, particularly in young people, mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited," Dr Wild said.

Although modern mobile phones have greatly reduced emissions the authors said phone use now was "much more prevalent and it is not unusual for young people to use mobile phones for an hour or more a day".

Industry group the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association also emphasised the study found no increased risk overall, and its conclusion was "in line with the weight of scientific opinion, which has found no substantiated scientific evidence of any adverse health effects".

The study's authors said there was "reasonable doubt" about the credibility of some patients' estimates of their phone use, which in 38 cases amounted to over five hours per day, and 12 hours or more per day in 10 cases. People with cancer were much more likely to report these very high usage rates than other study participants without cancer who were included as controls.

my comments :
it seems like mobile phone and cigarette have something in common : both contribute to health problems but we can't stop ourselves to prevent the usage of mobile compared to ciggar....
nowadays, not only adults use them kids too...
they are exposed with this kind of technology at an early age and what i'm concern is that how can we overcome cancer problem if we encourage the usage.....tech and human can't be sepearted....
i use my phone mainly for messaging and as a replacement of my mp3....and i started using it at the age of 18, compared to my younger brothers they had it early than me....why??

we can't stop the usage but we can't minimize the time we had with it....~_~