Childhood brain cancer and Cell Phones

[Guest guest]

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/1698.asp

 

Dr Charlie Teo - a pre-eminent neurosurgeon is at the cutting edge -

literally - of a 21 per cent increase in children's brain tumours.

He's curious about the effect mobile phones and Electro Magnetic

Radiation [EMR] may be having on these statistics, and has issued a

warning to parents to be aware...

 

So cautious is Dr Teo, the subject of his 12-year-old daughter having

a mobile phone in their family, he confesses, is a sore point. " The

argument for her having a mobile phone was there are some benefits of

it and that is in emergency situations, but she has promised me - she

is a very sensible girl - she will use a loudspeaker facility all the

time, " he says.

 

Dr Teo has every right to be nervous; it is his personal belief that

there may be an association between EMR and the development of brain

cancer. And while he is not seeking to be alarmist, he does want

people to be more aware, especially with children.

 

It's a belief backed up by Senator Lyn Allison, who spent a year

listening to the scientists to find out what the risks are. She

discovered there is very good reason to worry. " We're all a bit awash

now in radio frequency and radio waves generally and we are not

altogether sure what effect that has on us,' she says. Senator Allison

says that the fact that brain tumour is now the number one

life-threatening disease for children - above leukaemia - is

consistent with studies in Europe and the UK.

 

" [These studies show] there has been a 40 per cent across-the-board

increase in the number of brain tumours in the past 20 years, " she

explains, " now that 20 years has coincided with the use of mobile

phone and many other radio frequencies... " And the thickness of a

person's skull, according to scientific studies read by Senator

Allison, can also distinguish levels of vulnerability. " Scientists say

that the thickness of the skull in children makes a difference, it is

quite thin compared with adults and there is more brain fluid - which

means that the radiofrequencies can travel through the brain more

easily, " she says.

 

Dr Teo offers more specific evidence of patients whose tumours

correspond with their use of mobile phones. " When patients come in with

a brain cancer, I often say to them, " your cancer was on the right

side of the brain, it is in the area just above your ear, can you tell

me if you feel that you have had more exposure than most people to

mobile phones, " and I am surprised that most people say, " yes I have

used my phone continuously for the last seven years and it is always

stuck to my ear on this side... " well that is where the cancer is.

 

Canberra parents Geoff and Denise O'Connell have had their own

personal experience of these statistics. They lost their

seven-year-old daughter Kessia to a brain tumour. Their own research

has made them aware of the risks associated with exposure to EMR. " I

wouldn't move in next to a telecom tower or mobile phone tower and

certainly if there were heavy duty electrical wires I would be very

uncomfortable, " says Geoff.