Cellphone use, brain Cancer link: “We can’t conclude that there is no risk”

By Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
May 17, 2010

The largest study performed to determine the existence of a link between the use of cellphones and the risk of radiation-induced cancers has found out nothing new.  The head researcher of the study, Elisabeth Cardis, told AFP that although the study did not find an increased risk of getting cancer, “we can’t conclude that there is no risk because there are enough findings that suggest a possible risk.” This was not received well by the cancer industry and their main stream media loudspeakers whose headlines read: ‘No link between cellphone use and cancer‘.

The study not only could not reject the possibility that there is a risk, but also recommended further research due to the fact the use of mobiles increases everyday, and such a fact may just be enough of a reason to study the relationship in-depth.  The study did find “suggestions of higher risk” for the heaviest users.  The heaviest users who reported using their phones on the same side of their heads had a 40 percent higher risk for gliomas and 15 percent for meningiomas, but the researchers said “biases and errors” prevent making a causal link.

The results of the Interphone study, that studied 2,708 people with glioma tumors and 2,409 people with meningioma tumors in 13 countries over 10 years, will be published May 18 in the International Journal of Epidemiology.  The researchers call for special attention to the use of cellphones by young people as they are the group with more intenstive users, and were not included in the Interphone study.

“Observations at the highest level of cumulative call time and the changing patterns of mobile phone use … particularly in young people, mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer is merited,” said Christopher Wild, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the organization that coordinated the study.

Future studies will attempt to determine the risk of brain tumours from mobile phone in children and adolescents.

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