Fwd: Mobile phones and brain tumors

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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/mobile-phones-more-dangerous-than-smoking-or-asbestos-802602.html?r=RSS

Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry totake immediate steps to reduce radiationBy Geoffrey LeanThe IndependentSunday, 30 March 2008

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, astudy by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says peopleshould avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the

mobile phone industry must take " immediate steps " to reduce exposureto their radiation.The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yetpublished of the health risks.It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in

October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the riskof brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop,invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies whichincluded few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use ofmobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its peopleto minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency hascalled for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards overthe past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientificpapers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobilephones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper

based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publicationin a scientific journal.He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludesthat " there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a

link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours " . Hebelieves this will be " definitively proven " in the next decade.Noting that malignant brain tumours represent " a life-ending

diagnosis " , he adds: " We are currently experiencing a reactivelyunchecked and dangerous situation. " He fears that " unless the industryand governments take immediate and decisive steps " , the incidence of

malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed torise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be fartoo late to intervene medically. " It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health

ramifications than asbestos and smoking, " says Professor Khurana, whotold the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that threebillion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many assmoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and

exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain asroad accidents.Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana'sstudy as " a selective discussion of scientific literature by one

individual " . It believes he " does not present a balanced analysis " ofthe published science, and " reaches opposite conclusions to the WHOand more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews " .