Research

Researchers looked at 500 people who had developed the condition and compared their mobile phone usage with 1,300 healthy controls.

Those who had used the phone against one side of the head for several hours a day were 50% more likely to have developed a salivary gland tumor.

The research appeared in The American Journal of Epidemiology.

Numerous studies have focused on the risk of tumors among those who use mobile phones, and overwhelmingly found no increased cancer risk.

But researchers say these have tended to focus on brain tumors, and often did not include long-term users.

Cancer of the salivary gland is a very rare condition. Of the 230,000 cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK for instance annually, only 550 relate to this area.

One of the key findings of the study was that heavy users in rural areas had an even higher risk that those in cities, due, the team suggested, to the fact that mobile phones in areas without strong signals need to emit more radiation to work properly.

But Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, who led the research, stressed one study was not enough to prove a link, and that further research was needed.

Nonetheless, until more evidence became available, a ""precautionary"" approach was best, she said, particularly when it comes to children's use of mobile phones.

Despite these latest findings, the largest and longest-running investigation ever to be carried out into mobile phone usage found no increased risk of any sort of cancer.

It followed 420,000 people in Denmark, some of whom had been using a mobile phone for as long as ten years.

There was in fact a lower incidence of cancer than expected in a group of that size, suggesting mobile phones had no impact on the development of tumors.

Last year, the UK's Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Program said that while the evidence so far was ""reassuring"", there was still a need for studies to examine the very long-term impact, and to look at the effect in children.

Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said: ""Mobile phones are a relatively recent invention and new research into any possible health risks is welcome.

""However, it's important to remember that the vast majority of studies so far have found that mobile phones do not increase the risk of any type of cancer.""

Long Period Use of Mobile Cause

MARCH 31, 2006 (REUTERS) - STOCKHOLM -- The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk of brain tumors, according to a Swedish study released today, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers.

Last year, the Dutch Health Council, in an overview of research from around the world, found no evidence that radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was harmful. A four-year British survey in January also showed no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and the most common type of tumor.

But researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life looked at mobile phone use of 2,200 cancer patients and an equal number of healthy control cases.

Of the cancer patients, aged between 20 and 80, 905 had a malignant brain tumor and about a tenth of them were also heavy users of mobile phones.

"Of these 905 cases, 85 were so-called high users of mobile phones; that is, they began early to use mobile and/or wireless telephones and used them a lot," said the authors of the study in a statement issued by the Institute.

Published in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, the study defines heavy use as 2,000 plus hours, which "corresponds to 10 years' use in the work place for one hour per day."

Early use was defined as having begun to use a mobile phone before the age of 20.

There was also shown to be a marked increase in the risk of tumor on the side of the head where the telephone was generally used, the study said, which took into account factors such as smoking habits, working history and exposure to other agents.

Kjell Mild, who led the study, said the figures meant that heavy users of mobile phones had a 240% increased risk of a malignant tumor on the side of the head the phone is used.

"The way to get the risk down is to use handsfree," he told Reuters.

He said his study was the biggest yet to look at long-term users of the wireless phone, which has been around in Sweden in a portable form since 1984, longer than in many other countries

Do Cellular Phones Cause Brain Cancer?

Because widespread cellular phone use is little more than a decade old, there has been limited opportunity to examine its long-term health effects. However, 3 recently published, large case-control studies and one large cohort study have compared cell phone use among brain cancer patients and people without brain cancer. In each of the 3 case-control studies, patients with brain cancer were compared to people free of brain cancer, in terms of their past use of cellular phones. If the patients reported more cellular phone use than those in the study who did not have brain cancer, and if no other differences between the 2 groups could account for the brain cancers, these observations would provide evidence of a possible link between cellular phones and brain cancer.

The first study compared 233 brain cancer patients diagnosed between 1994 and 1996 in the Stockholm and Uppsala regions of Sweden with 466 controls. The second study, conducted by the American Health Foundation, compared 469 brain cancer patients diagnosed between 1994 and 1998 in New York, Providence, and Boston with 422 controls. The third and largest study, conducted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, compared 782 brain cancer patients diagnosed in Phoenix, Boston, and Pittsburgh between 1994 and 1998 with 799 controls.

All 3 case-control studies had similar results:

• First, the patients with brain cancer did not report more cellular phone use overall than the controls. This finding was true when all brain cancers were considered as a group, when individual types of brain cancer were considered, and when specific locations within the brain were considered. In fact, most of the studies showed a tendency toward a lower risk of brain cancer among cellular phone uses, for unclear reasons.
  
  
• Second, none of the studies showed a "dose-response relationship" -- a tendency for the risk of brain cancer to increase with increasing cellular phone use, which would be expected if cellular phone use caused brain cancer.
  
  
• Third, the studies did not show a clear link between the side of the head on which the brain cancer occurred and the side on which the cellular phone was used (with the possible exception of the Swedish study).

Recent results from the Swedish Interphone study of long-term cell phone use, using a population-based case control design indicate the same conclusions. There was no association with risk of any of the brain tumor types studied (glioma or meningioma), or with duration of use, side of use, or amount of use.

Results of the long-term cohort study, which linked data on all of the 420,095 cellular telephone users in Denmark between 1982 and 1995 to the Danish Cancer Registry, agree with the findings of the case-control studies. Cellular phone use, even for more than 10 years, was not associated with an increased risk of developing brain tumors or cancer overall, nor was there an association with any brain tumor subtypes or with tumors in any location within the brain. As in the case-control studies, no link was found between brain tumor risk and RF dose, as assessed by length of cellular phone use, date since first subscription, age at first subscription, or type of cellular phone used.

However, these published studies have only limited ability to examine the association between cell phone use and specific subtypes of brain cancer. One subtype that has been studied is acoustic neuroma, a relatively rare, slow-growing tumor of the acoustic nerve (which transmits the sensation of hearing from the ear to the brain) that occurs in less than one adult per 100,000 people per year. At least 9 epidemiological studies have looked for an association between the use of cellular telephones and acoustic neuroma. Results of these studies have been inconsistent, due largely to variations in study design and statistical challenges posed by the rarity of these tumors. One of the largest and most recent studies analyzed data from the 5 northern European countries, and found no relation of acoustic neuroma risk with cell phone use, duration of use, or number of calls made. According to the researchers, “The study suggested there is no substantial risk of acoustic neuroma in the first decade after starting mobile phone use. However, an increase in risk after longer term us or after a longer lag period could not be ruled out.”

In summary, there is now considerable epidemiologic evidence that shows no consistent association between cellular phone use and overall risk of brain cancer. Some uncertainty remains regarding a possible association with acoustic neuromas. Several large studies now in progress will add markedly to the evidence within a few years.

What the Animal and Laboratory Evidence Suggests

Most but not all laboratory studies have reported a lack of RF-induced DNA damage. No increase in spontaneous brain tumors was observed in 2 studies of rats exposed to RF. The risk of lymphoma after radiation in rodents genetically altered to be especially sensitive to cancer-causing influences was increased following whole-body RF exposure.

What Expert Agencies Say

Based on animal and human evidence like the examples above, expert agencies have evaluated the cancer-causing potential of cell phone use.

In October 1999, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), responded to increased media focus on cell phones and brain cancer by issuing a Consumer Update on Mobile Phones (including cellular phones). In its statement, the CDRH stated, "The available science does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe, or that they are unsafe. However, the available scientific evidence does not demonstrate any adverse health effects associated with the use of mobile phones."

The FCC issued a statement in October 1999 in response to media assertions that some mobile phones exceed the maximum level of emitted radiation permitted. Claiming support from the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the FCC stated that its guidelines "already incorporate a large margin of safety between allowed levels of exposure and exposure thresholds that have been identified with known adverse health effects." The excess levels of exposure reported by the media were "well within that safety margin, and, therefore, there is no indication of any immediate threat to human health from these phones." The FCC is currently undertaking new research to verify the safety of RF levels emitted from mobile phones.

A recent consumer information document issued jointly by the FDA and FCC reaches the same conclusions:

"The available scientific evidence does not show that any health problems are associated with using wireless phones. There is no proof, however, that wireless phones are absolutely safe. Wireless phones emit low levels of radiofrequency energy (RF) in the microwave range while being used. They also emit very low levels of RF when in the stand-by mode. Whereas high levels of RF can produce health effects (by heating tissue), exposure to low level RF that does not produce heating effects causes no known adverse health effects. Many studies of low-level RF exposures have not found any biological effects. Some studies have suggested that some biological effects may occur, but such findings have not been confirmed by additional research. In some cases, other researchers have had difficulty in reproducing those studies, or in determining the reasons for inconsistent results."

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Toxicology Program (NTP), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 3 of the main exposure classifying agencies, have not evaluated the carcinogenicity (cancer-causing potential) of cell phone use.

Mobile Phone Radiation Doesn't Cause Cellular Stress

The stress response is a cellular protection mechanism set into motion by various adverse stimuli, including heat shock, heavy metals, and inflammation. High levels of the stress response in cells are thought to result in changes associated with malignancy.

"We performed highly sensitive, extremely well-controlled tests on living cells irradiated with energy like that from mobile phones, but at levels 5 to 10 times higher than those set for the devices by regulatory agencies," says Andrei Laszlo, Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology and a researcher at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. "We see no indication that factors involved in the stress response increase their activity as a result of such exposures."

Prior research into the effect of cell phones on the stress response has been fraught with contradictory results, which in part may be due to less-than-ideal experimental conditions. For example, in the past it has been difficult to prevent temperature changes caused by microwave exposure.

Because heating of tissues has been shown unlikely to be a component of the effect of cell phone radiation on biological systems, Laszlo and his group sought to reduce as far as possible any heating of the cells in culture during the study. Using sensitive equipment that continuously monitored and adjusted temperature, they were able to keep temperature variations to plus or minus 0.3 degrees centigrade.

The researchers tuned their room-sized irradiator to emit cell phone frequency microwaves for both FDMA (frequency domain multiple access—used for cell phone analog signals) and CDMA (code domain multiple access—used for digital signals) modulation at power outputs standard for mobile phones. The large size of the irradiator enabled them to expose a large number of living cells so that sufficient material could be collected for highly accurate measurements.

Cancer Information About Mobile

If anything’s likely to cause long term health issues, it would be worrying over the endless contradictory mobile phone health reports.

In the latest of a long line of reports, a Japanese study concludes that mobile phone use does not raise the risk of brain tumours, so we can relax for a bit (until the next damning report comes out, natch).

The first to look at the effects of hand set radiation levels on different parts of the bonce, researchers at Tokyo Women’s Medical University discovered no increased risk of the three main types of brain cancer among mobile phone aficionados.

The study compared 322 brain cancer patients suffering the three most common types of brain tumour (glioma, meningioma or pituitary adenoma) with 683 healthy people and quizzed them about their mobile phone use over a long period of time.

Radiation levels beaming out from various types of mobile phone were also examined and categorised into four levels based on their radiation strength, and each phone was analysed to see how it might affect different areas of the noggin.

Lead researcher Professor Naohito Yamaguchi concluded: “Using our newly developed and more accurate techniques, we found no association between mobile phone use and cancer, providing more evidence to suggest they don’t cause brain cancer.”

Although there’s been huge amounts of contradictory findings from research into mobile phone safety, most have failed to find an association with an increased risk of cancer.

Dr Lesley Walker, of the charity Cancer Research UK, commented: “So far, studies have shown no evidence that mobile use is harmful, but we can’t be completely sure about their long-term effects.

Mobile Phones Don't Cause Brain Cancer?

A study conducted in Japan recently has suggested that use of mobile phone does not raise the risk of brain tumors.

The research, the first of its kind to examine the effects of radiation levels of mobile-phone handset on different parts of the brain, compared 322 brain-cancer patients and 683 healthy people. The cancer patients had one of the three most common types of brain tumor – glioma, meningioma, or pituitary adenoma.

Professor Naohito Yamaguchi, lead researcher, wrote in the British Journal of Cancer: “Using our newly developed and more accurate techniques, we found no association between use of mobile phone and cancer, providing more evidence to suggest that the device does not cause brain cancer.”

The Japanese researchers evaluated subjects on the basis of the number of years of mobile phone use and the time spent on the calls. They also studied the radiation emitted from various types of mobile phones, and placed them into one of four categories relating to strength of radiation. How each mobile phone was likely to affect different areas of the brain was analyzed.

However, many researches conducted earlier had suggested that use of mobile phone does lead to brain cancer. Yet, most of them had found no link between use of mobile phone and an increased risk of brain cancer.

Some studies had showed that while the use of mobiles has increased rapidly in the past two decades, the number of cases of brain cancer hardly changed.

In 2007, a research team from the United Kingdom found no link between use of mobile phone and health problems in the short term. However, experts could not rule out a risk in the long term.

Public concern over the safety of mobile phones has grown as increased numbers of both adults and children are using mobile phone for everyday communication.

Mobile May Cause Again

Here we go again. Yet another study finds that there may be a link between cell phone radiation and brain cancer. A new study, published by The Daily Mail, claims that as little as 10 minutes of exposure to radiation from your mobile phone can cause chemical changes in brain cells that can lead to cancer.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have observed that short-term exposure to low-level mobile phone radiation (at 875Mhz - similar to wireless network frequencies) can trigger a chemical switch within the human and rat cells that controls how the cell divides. Until now, the effect of radiation on the brain has been considered from a thermal standpoint - does it heat the brain enough to cause damage? But this new study concentrates on the chemical triggers that have been linked to other cancers and represents a new "non-thermal" link to cancer.

Dr. Simon Arthur, a health expert at Dundee University, said the effect was 'unlikely to cause cancer." Still, anything that messes with the way a cell divides is worrisome to us - afterall, cancer results from uncontrolled cell division/growth.

Pick up a headset, Bluetooth or wired, and use it as much as possible. It may not turn out to cause cancer, but what if it does? Better safe than sorry - really, really sorry.

Mobile May Cause Mouth Cancer

A recent Israeli study has revealed that frequent use of cell phones for long time-periods may give rise to mouth cancer.

The results shown by previous studies, conducted in regard to mobile phone usage and its hazardous effects, were inconsistent.

At the same time as a few scientists told that they had discovered a relation between cancer and excess mobile phone usage but some researchers had disapproved the claim.

With a control group of 1,266 people, scientists judged against the lifestyle of 402 people with benign mouth tumors and 56 having malignant ones.

The researchers viewed the lifestyles of 402 people having benignant mouth tumors and 56 with malevolent ones. They were compared with a control group of 1,266 people.

In the new study, scientists looked at the lifestyles of 402 people with benign mouth tumors and 56 with malignant ones. They were compared to a control group of 1,266 people.

The study discovered that using mobile phones frequently for five years may increase the chances of getting mouth tumor by about 50 percent as compared with people who had never used the mobile phone.

The scientists said that the majority of people who used mobile phones were more expected to get parotid gland tumors.

The parotid is largest salivary glands located in front of the ear. Lasting mobile phone users have a tendency to grow tumors on the similar side of the head as the phone was normally held, they said.

People who used mobile phones in rustic regions were found to be at greater risk although the cause of the heightened risk was not established.

Do Mobile Cause Cancer

Though the evidence is contested, indeed many will argue highly contested, research studies on the effect of mobile phone use on cancer, especially those funded by the industry, continue to suggest there is no danger. Indeed, some scientists argue that non-ionizing radiation typical of cell phone use could not cause cancer. The problem is that not every study suggests there is no correlation.

Regular use of mobile telephones does increase the risk of developing tumors, a new study by Israeli researchers published in the American Journal of Epidemiology finds.

An extract of the report reported by Israel's Yedoit Aharonot newspaper put the risk of developing a parotid gland tumor nearly 50 percent higher for frequent mobile phone users, those who talk more than 22 hours a month.

The risk was still higher if users clamped the phone to the same ear, did not use hands-free devices or were in rural areas.

The study included 402 benign and 58 malignant incident cases of parotid gland tumor diagnosed in Israel at age 18 years or more, in 2001 to 2003.

The research was led by Dr Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer and radiation expert at the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in Israel and as part of a World Health Organisation project.

Note that levels of usage identified as dangerous were 22 hours a month. As with many other studies, the potential danger has to be kept in perspective: sometimes it takes really unusual dosages of an irritant to trigger a negative result. In this case, we are talking about 44 minutes of use in a 30-day month. That won't appear excessive to many dispassionate observers.

Some researchers (such as Friedman and Richter)point out that there is a high degree of potential conflict of interest in the funding of studies showing that cell phone usage is safe.

Studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association during 2001, for example, found a strong association for studies whose authors had an economic conflict of interest and also reported there is no danger from cell phone use. The association between industry-funded research and findings of "no threat" were associated with a greater than 99.9 percent level of confidence.