Long use of cell phones may cause Brain Cancer

Regular use of mobile phones could cause cancer… Alarmed? Well recent research says using a mobile phone for more than 10 years increases the risk of getting brain cancer!

According to the study published in the latest issue of the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine, even using the mobile phone for just an hour every day for 10 years is enough to increase the risk of developing cancer. The study, headed by two Swedes, Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro and Professor Kjell Hansson Mild of Umea University, is the most inclusive one till date.

It found that people who have been using cell phones for a decade or more are more vulnerable to malignant tumor on the side of the brain where they hold the handset.

The scientists also said that the international standard used to protect the cell phone users from the radiation emitted from them is ‘not safe’ and emphasized on the need to ‘revise’ them with immediate effect.

According to the study, caution is needed during the use of mobile phones and since children are most vulnerable to diseases, they should be discouraged from using cell phones.

Normally, it takes at least 10 years or more for cancer to develop in the body. And since the use of mobile phones have gone up rapidly only recently, so far few people have encountered the risk. Even official assurances from the mobile phone companies that the cell phones produced by them are safe to use are not justified as only very few people have used the cell phones for that long and have been exposed to emissions to develop cancer.

Last month an investigation by the Mobile Telecommunications
and Health Research program funded by the British government and the industry sources claimed that the mobile phones were not associated with any biological or adverse health hazards. But then, even the chairman of the investigation team Professor Lawrie Challis admitted that not enough people using cell phones for longer periods were covered by the program.

Professor Lawrie confessed that they could not rule out the possibility of occurrence of cancer and other diseases among the cell phone users. At the same time, he said that the investigation has given a tip-off that people using cell phones for 10 years or more may contact brain cancer and emphasized on the need for more extensive research on the subject.

The scientists led by Hardell and Mild researched the results of the 11 studies that have so far investigated the occurrence of tumors in people who have used phones for more than a decade, drawing on research in Sweden, Denmark Finland, Japan, Germany, the United States and Britain. They found almost all had discovered an increased risk, especially on the side of the head where people listened to their handsets.

However it must be emphasized that cancer and mobile phones have been linked since a long time. Hard evidence is yet to be found on cancer links, but regular yakkers on mobiles may need to be careful.