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November, 2004
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Cell Phone Use Doubles Risk Of Rare Cancers
By Jim Scanlon
Two relatively small public health studies, one in Sweden, the other in Denmark
report the first clear evidence that mobile telephone use increases the risk of
a benign (non invasive) head tumor.
The tumor, acoustic neuroma, grows on
the nerve ending connecting the ear to the brain and normally the occurrence is
1 in 100,000. Use of cell telephones for 10 years or more doubles the risk. If
that same rate applied to
The Swedish study involved 148 acoustic neuroma
patients, 14 of whom had regularly used mobile phones for more than 10 years.
A somewhat smaller Danish study of 106 patients found no link
between cell phone use and the tumors although the average sized of the tumors
was larger for regular users than non users.
The two Scandinavian countries are part of the INTERPHONE study,
which involves 13 European countries and is coordinated by the World Health
Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer based in Lyon
France. The organization was set up in 1998 to investigate the health effects
of exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields from mobile phones.
Studies are nearing completion in all 13 countries and final
results are expected in early 2005. Five of the countries are planning larger
studies involving 50,000 each, 250,000 total, to confirm any effects
that INTERPHONE finds.
(Information from Nature Online 14 October 2004)