Phone use may lead to brain cancer

Research shows tumour rates threefold among users since 25 years

LONDON: The longer people talk over the phone, the more likely they are to develop glioma, a deadly form of brain cancer, according to a new study. Brain tumour rates were three times more among people who spoke on cell or cordless phones after more than 25 years than those who did not use them, the findings showed.

“The risk is three times higher after 25 years of use. We can see this clearly,” said Lennart Hardell, lead researcher and oncologist from University Hospital in Orebro in Sweden. For the study, Hardell and his colleague Michael Carlberg matched 1,380 patients with malignant brain tumours to people without such tumours.

Researchers also compared their phone use. People who reported using cordless or mobile phones for 20 to 25 years had higher risk of being diagnosed with glioma, as compared with those who reported using them for less than a year, the study found.

However, no link was found between wireless phones and malignant brain tumours besides glioma. A World Health Organisation panel of 31 scientists from 14 countries classified mobile phones as ‘possibly carcinogenic’ in 2011. The study appeared in the journal Pathophysiology.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2014.

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