[FNL] Study Mobile Phones, Benign Tumors

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Study Links Mobile Phones, Benign Tumors

 

By MATT MOORE

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - A new Swedish study suggests that people who

use a mobile phone for at least 10 years might increase their risk of

developing a rare benign tumor along a nerve on the side of the head

where they hold the phone.

 

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, one of the

researchers behind the preliminary study, Anders Ahlbom, said the

results were surprising and need to be confirmed by more research.

 

Over the last few years, several studies have investigated whether

the use of cellular phones is linked with an increased risk of brain

tumors, but experts say the right studies have yet to be done.

 

Although experiments have shown that radiation from mobile phones can

affect brain cells in a lab, it is unclear whether that translates

into a threat in real life. More relevant studies on people have

found no evidence that the phones pose a health risk.

 

However, experts have said that because children's brains are still

developing, it may not be a good idea for youngsters to use the

phones for long periods of time until more is known about the health

effects.

 

The three-year study by Ahlbom and Maria Feychting, both professors

at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, focused on 750 Swedes who

had used mobile phones for at least 10 years.

 

``We are eagerly awaiting the results of other studies,'' he said of

the study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

 

Using 150 patients who were already diagnosed with acoustic neuroma,

a benign tumor on the auditory nerve that takes several years to grow

before being diagnosed, and 600 who did not have it, researchers

questioned them about their mobile phone use.

 

All 750 subjects had been using their mobile phones for at least 10

years, nearly all of them the early analog models, as opposed to the

digital models currently on the market.

 

``At the time the study was conducted only analog mobile phones had

been in use for more than 10 years and therefore we cannot determine

if the results are confined to use of analog phones or if the

results would be similar also after long-term use of digital (GSM)

phones,'' the report said. Nearly all the mobile phones sold by

Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, among others, are

digital, not analog.

 

The risk of developing the tumor was almost double for those who

started to use phones before their diagnosis.

 

``When the side of the head on which the phone was usually held was

taken into consideration, we found that the risk of acoustic neuroma

was almost four times higher on the same side as the phone was

held,'' Ahlbom and Feychting said.

 

Retrospective questionnaires are not considered to be the most robust

method of determining the link between a behavior and disease. Many

times, links that emerge from such studies turn out not to be true

when the connection is studied more rigorously.

 

Normally, the tumor, which can affect hearing, occurs in less than

one adult per 100,000 people annually. The tumor pushes on the

surface of the brain, but doesn't grow into the brain itself,

according to the Atlanta, Georgia-based Acoustin Neuroma Association.

 

``They were surprising, they were stronger than I had expected,''

Ahlbom told the AP. ``To be quite honest, I hadn't expected

anything. We don't know what has caused it.''

 

But, the study, which was funded by the European Union and is part of

the wider Interphone study coordinated by the International Agency

for Research on Cancer, needs outside confirmation.

 

It's also revived concerns over whether using mobile phones is

harmful to a person's health.

 

Previous studies, including one by Finnish scientists in 2002, found

that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by phones can affect brain

tissue, but others have said that's not the case, which was the

finding of a Danish group participating in the same Interphone study.

 

The wireless industry has always maintained that there is no link

between mobile phones and cancer.

 

On Wednesday, the Wireless Association in Washington, D.C., a trade

group representing American mobile phone manufacturers, urged more

research.

 

``The wireless industry agrees that more research is needed in this

area to provide definitive answers to any questions that might still

exist,'' it said in a statement. ``Numerous independent scientific

bodies have conducted research on possible health effects from using

wireless phones and it is widely accepted that no conclusive link

can be made.''

 

Ahlbom conceded that more research was needed, and added that the

study was not an excuse to avoid using mobile phones.

 

``You could say also, of course, if that someone is concerned about

these results the easy way to avoid any risk is to use a handsfree

set,'' he said.

 

10/14/04 12:57