Mobile phones: A public health time bomb?

Mobile phones could represent a public health time bomb akin to asbestos or smoking, according to a study by neurosurgeon Dr Vini G Khurana. It suggests there is growing evidence of a link between excessive long-term use of mobiles and certain types of brain tumours - reigniting a long-running debate about the safety of the technology.

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During a 14-month-long study Khurana reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phone use in recent medical and scientific literature - in addition to press and internet coverage - and concludes "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence… for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours".

The risk may be as great as a two- to four-fold increase of developing a tumour on the same side of the head as the 'preferred side' for mobile phone use, the report warns.

It states: "There is a growing and statistically significant body of evidence reporting that brain tumours such as vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma) and astrocytoma are associated with 'heavy' and 'prolonged' mobile phone use, particularly on the same side as the 'preferred ear' for telephony…

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking, and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation, including very young children."

Khurana, a Mayo Clinic-trained neurosurgeon with an advanced neurosurgery Fellowship in Cerebrovascular and Complex Tumor Surgery from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, points out that previous studies which found no evidence of a link between mobile use and an increased risk of cancer often did not include enough long-term mobile phone users in their study sample.

Because 10 or more years is the length of time it can take for tumours to develop, Khurana says health studies of mobile phones must consider lengthy exposure to the devices - of a decade or more. He believes mobile technology has now been around long enough for any public health effects to begin emerging.

The report states: "The 'incubation time' or 'latency' (i.e., the time from commencement of regular mobile phone usage to the diagnosis of a malignant solid brain tumour in a susceptible individual) may be in the order of 10 to 20 years. In the years 2008 to 2012, we will have reached the appropriate length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the impact of this global technology on brain tumour incidence rates."

While there is still no proven link between cancer and exposure to electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone use, Khurana said the growing body of evidence is cause for concern. Children's use of mobiles is particularly worrying, he claims, suggesting kids' use of mobiles should be restricted to emergency situations only.