Mobile phones and brain tumor risk
From Conservapedia
Mobile phones and brain tumor risk.
In the US there are over 220 million mobile phone users, and 2 billion worldwide.
The Dutch Health Council, in an overview of research from around the world, found no evidence radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was harmful. A four-year British survey showed no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and the most common type of tumor.
However, according to two teams of researchers the use of mobile phones over a long period of time might raise the risk for intracranial tumor.
In 2006 researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life said they looked at the mobile phone use of 905 people between the age of 20 and 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and found a link. [1]
"Public concern has been expressed about the possible adverse health effects of mobile telephones, mainly related to (brain) tumours," wrote Dr Anna Lahkola, of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, and colleagues in the International Journal of Cancer.[2]
The Finnish researchers examined the relationship between mobile phone use and risk of glioma by studying 1 521 glioma patients and 3 301 controls. The vast majority of both groups reported using cellphones. Overall, 92% of glioma patients and 94% of controls reported ever using a mobile phone. Overall, there was no evidence of increased glioma risk related to regular mobile phone use. There were no significant associations observed with duration of use, years since first use, cumulative number of calls, or cumulative hours of use. No increased glioma risk was observed when analog and digital phones were analysed separately.
There was, however, a trend toward increased risk of glioma in people who used a cellphone for more than 10 years exclusively on one side of the head, which was on the same side as the tumour. The association reached "borderline statistical significance."
"This may be due either to chance or causal effect or information bias, i.e., over-reporting of mobile phone use on the affected side by the cases with brain tumours," the Finnish investigators comment.
An Israeli study in 2008 found heavy mobile phone use may be linked to an increased risk of cancer of the salivary gland--but theses cancers are extremely rare in any case.[3]
The most common symptom of a brain tumor are: Severe headaches, seizures, vision or hearing problems and nausea.
See also
