Cancer and mobile phones: the warnings are getting stronger

Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 January 2008 11:00

Opinion and Analysis

In September 2007 results of the largest UK investigation into possible health problems from mobile technology were published. The researchers failed to find any evidence that short-term mobile phone use affected brain function or could cause brain cancer but refused to rule out the possibility that cancers could appear in a few years' time.

AMTA responded by saying that mobile phone users would be reassured about their safety as a result of the study.

When the Israeli results were reported AMTA's recommendation was to do nothing until further results were available. AMTA CEO, Chris Althaus, said the industry had noted the findings that the risk of developing a parotid gland tumour was 50 percent higher for people who had used mobile phones for more than 22 hours a month but said: "individual studies need to be seen in the light of the total research effort into mobile phone safety...Until we have the results of all of the other national studies, as well as the overall analysis of the data that will be undertaken by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a complete assessment cannot be made."

He added: "No single study can answer any scientific question and this study, like all others, must be viewed not in isolation but against the backdrop of significant previous research."

The Israeli study is part of the 13-nation Interphone study, the biggest and most comprehensive study undertaken to try and determine if the use of mobile phones increases head and neck cancers.

According to AMTA, "The most authoritative conclusions regarding Interphone will only be drawn when the pooled analysis of the full international data is validated and published in its entirety, which is expected in 2008. Interphone will then contribute to the full IARC assessment and extensive research to date."

It's worth recalling that cellular telephony is less than two decades old, that in the early years phones and calls were extremely expensive and so heavy usage was restricted to a very small percentage of the population, that the explosion of cellphone usage, particularly in developing countries is a phenomenon that is well under a decade old and that time and again reports of research striving to find links between cellphones and cancer have stressed the very long incubation period for cancers and the lack of statistically significant populations with sufficiently long exposures.

If the full Interphone results come out in 2008 it could be the year that AMTA has to change its tune. And cellphone manufacturers and network operators might have to follow the lead taken by the French and issue health warnings about prolonged heavy usage.