Too soon to rule cellphone use ‘safe’
p2pnet view Mobiles:- The “largest-ever international research conducted on a possible link between brain cancer and other tumors in the head and mobile use”, showed “no increased risk of brain tumours among those who regularly used mobiles for 10 years”, said The Local yesterday.
But it’s far too soon to believe cellphone use is guaranteed safe, says the Montreal Gazette.
The Canadian-led study also found “some evidence of an elevated risk of glioma” in the 10% who spent the most time on their cellphones — “with the highest point estimates seen for tumours in the temporal lobe and for subjects who reported having used their mobile phone mainly on the same side as that on which the tumour occurred”, says the story.
The results were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology “alongside the analysis by Rodolfo Saracci of Italy’s National Research Council and Jonathan Samet of the University of Southern California”, it says, going on >>>
“None of today’s established carcinogens, including tobacco, could have been firmly identified as increasing risk in the first 10 years or so since first exposure,” Saracci and Samet said of the “inherent limitation” of the Canadian-led study involving 13 countries.
“In high-income countries, mobile phone use began in the 1980s but was not widely prevalent until the mid-1990s. The cancer cases in the study were diagnosed between 2000 and 2004. As a consequence, less than five per cent of the meningioma cases and less than nine per cent of the glioma cases occurred more than 10 years since start of mobile phone use,” Saracci and Samet said.
“Ionizing radiation is a recognized cause of brain tumours but except for rare instances the radiation induced cases occur on average after 10-20 years since the time of first exposure,” so there’s an “inherent limitation” in the study.
In Canada, the number of cellphone subscribers “ballooned from 525,662 in 1990 to over 8.7 million in 2000. Today, it’s close to 23 million, according to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association”, says the Montreal Gazette, addingZ:
“And Merrill Lynch estimates that the average monthly use in Canada is just over 400 minutes, totalling about 13 minutes a day.”
The Local – Mobiles ‘don’t increase brain tumour risk’, May 17, 2010
Montreal Gazette – Cellphone users shouldn’t relax yet: Cancer study, May 17, 2010
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May 19th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Hi,
I guess the fact no-one phones me is a good thing then or are they all dead?
Who makes the research into mobile related cancer, oh mobile phone companies?, oh sorry we are past that now we just trikle peanut funding to independants, I guess by the time they hit the tumor cough nail on the head (which we hit prior to 2000) it will be to late for this generation. No worries though, you give us another 10-15 years to work out a mobile radiation shield that should suffice, else you could always fall back on cups and string (for me I get better reception with this and it isnt recorded).
Hey I am not scientist but anything that makes your ear burn from using for more than 10 mins at once cant realy be good. Dont wait for these guys to say it, use common sense big mac’s make you fat did you really need a independant study to prove that? if you did you may be fat already. Not to worry Mc’Donalds also have links with Holland and barret the health food store to catch you on your way down
.
Peace out!