Slight Mobile Cancer

Mobile phone users were still in the dark yesterday after a major study concluded there IS a "very slight hint" that long-term use can cause cancer.

The six-year study found no link between mobile phone use and health problems in the short term. But British researchers found a "faint hint" of a higher cancer risk among people who used them for more than 10 years - raising fresh doubts among users of the 70 million handsets now in the UK.

The team said it is "too early" to say if mobiles could lead to cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's and the risk was "at the borderline of statistical significance." Prof Lawrie Challis said: "We cannot rule out the possibility cancer could appear in a few years. The evidence is not strong enough and most cancers cannot be detected until after 10 years. With smoking, there was no link to lung cancer until 10 years."

The £8.8million Mobile Telecommunications and Health Programme comes after a Danish study of 400,000 users concluded mobiles were safe.
The new study also found no evidence that mobile masts cause electrical hypersensitivity, a condition with symptoms such as nausea. The MTHR will investigate further with a £6million study of 200,000 users across Europe.

Lib Dem Evan Harris said: "This suggests no adverse health effects or they are very small or long-term."

But campaigners Mast Sanity said: "The programme hasn't got to the bottom of it - it's too close to industry."

40million people in the UK are now thought to use mobiles Mobile call minutes in UK totalled 82 billion last year There are 70million mobile phone handsets in the UK.