More bad news on the dangers of using cellphones

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 15 September 2007 02:56

Business IT - Technology

The co-editor of the repo, Dr David Carpenter, rector, Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, New York says "this report stands as a wake-up call that long-term exposure to some kinds of EMF may cause serious health effects. Good public health planning is needed now to prevent cancers and neurological diseases linked to exposure to power lines and other sources of EMF. We need to educate people and our decision-makers that 'business as usual' is unacceptable."

Brain tumour specialist Dr. Lennart Hardell, professor at University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden, said "the evidence for risks from prolonged cellphone and cordless phone use is quite strong when you look at people who have used these devices for 10 years or longer, and when they are used mainly on one side of the head."

Brain tumours normally take a long time to develop, on the order of 15 to 20 years. But there is some evidence that brain tumours and acoustic neuromas (tumour of the auditory nerve in the brain) and are showing up after only 10 years (a shorter time period than for most other known carcinogens). "This indicates we need research on more long-term users to understand the full risks" said Hardell. "Recent studies that do not report increased risk of brain tumours and acoustic neuromas have not looked at heavy users, use over ten years or longer, and do not look at the part of the brain which would reasonably have exposure to produce a tumour."

The full report is available at http://www.bioinitiative.org