Good news for mobile phone users

January 20th 2006

Mobile phones may be safe for their users, according to the findings of a major research project published today.

The British study finds no link between phone use and the most common form of brain cancer.

Researchers studied about 3,000 people over five years - saying this covered the introduction of a range of phones.

The study, reported on-line by the British Medical Journal, found no risk from the early analogue phones which used higher power levels than modern digital phones.

The study compared nearly 1,000 people with the brain tumour, glioma, with 1,700 healthy people.

One bizarre finding was that the study linked brain cancer to tumours developing on the same side of the head as phones are used - but this was offset by users enjoying a reduced risk on the other side. The most likely explanation is that patients believed there was a link between their illness and mobile phone use and remembered wrongly which ear they used for their phone.

Researchers from universities in Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, UK, worked with the Institute of Cancer Research in London on the project.

The researchers, led by Professor Patricia McKinney, of Leeds University, UK, report: "There was no relationship for risk of glioma and time since first use of a mobile phone, lifetime years of use and cumulative number of calls and hours of use."

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