Consumer Affair Cell phone may raise brain cancer risk
By Ben Wasserman and Sue Mueller
Sep 26, 2008 - 12:56:05 PM
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Friday Sep 26, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) – Two U.S.
scientists told the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy in a congressional
hearing that use of cell phone may raise the risk of brain cancer although the
risk needs to be further researched, news media reports.
The concern came from Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of
the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Dr. David Carpenter, director
of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany.
Drs. Herberman and Carpenter cited a major study recently
presented by Dr. Lennart Hardell of Örebro University in Sweden saying people
using cell phones doubled their risk of developing brain cancer and acoustic
neuromas, a benign tumor that damage hearing nerve. The study also showed people
who started using cell phone before the age of 20 years were more than five
times as likely to develop brain cancer as those who did not.
"I cannot tell this committee that cell phones are
definitely dangerous. But, I certainly cannot tell you that they are
safe," Herberman was quoted by businessweek.com as saying.
Dr. Herberman early sent to his colleagues a
warning over the risk of the cell phone and advised in a public statement that
children should not be allowed or restricted to use cell phone except for
emergencies.
Lennart Hardell is a professor of the University Hospital
in Orebro, Sweden.
He re-analyzed data
from one of the biggest studies ever carried out on the effect of radiation on
cancer risk and found that risk of brain cancer in those who started using cell
phone before age 20 was five times higher while the risk for those who started
using cell phones after 20 was 50 percent higher compared to those who did not
use.
Last week the European Parliament voted 522 to 16 to urge
ministers across Europe to impose stricter limits for exposure to radiation
from mobile and cordless phones, wi-fi and other radiation-generating devices in
part because children are particularly vulnerable to the risk due to their
immature smaller brains.
Prof. Hardell told the conference that children under 12
should not use mobiles except in emergencies.
He suggested that the risk for children and teenagers may be greater
than his results indicated.
A government researcher Dr. Robert Hoover at the National
Cancer Institute downplayed the significance of Hardell's study saying the
study has not been subject to peer reviews. He suggested the association between
cell phone use and risk of cancer is inconclusive and further research is
needed to clarify the association.
Not much research on the association between cell phone
and brain cancer has been done in the US. Mostly the research was done in
European countries.
Often studies lasted
no more than ten years and the results were negative. Researchers and sponsors
of the studies then pointed to the results and said cell phone is safe to
use.
The important thing many studies failed to address is the
latency of brain cancer.
The malignancies
in the brain like many other types need more than 10 years to develop. The association
between the risk of brain cancer and use of cell phone for more than 10 years
was often positive.
The House Subcommittee invited CTIA, the international Association
for Wireless telecommunications, an industry organization, to testify, but the
organization declined the invitation, Rep Dennis Kucinich was cited as saying.
Instead, CTIA issued a statement saying the industry has
supported research on the issues and research so far has failed to prove that
there should be a concern about the brain cancer risk.