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Long-Term Study of Cancer and Cell Phones Ordered
The Times Online reports that a mass study of 200,000 cell phones users will look at the possibility of a long-term cancer risk from cell phone use.
More than 200,000 volunteers, including long-term users, are to be monitored for at least five years to plot mobile phone use against any serious diseases they develop, including cancer and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Professor Lawrie Challis, who is in the final stages of negotiation with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry for the &3 million that he needs to fund the study, told The Times that research has shown that mobiles are very safe in the short term but that there is a "hint of something" for people using them longer.
In an interview, Professor Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, and chairman of the government-funded mobile telecommunications health research programme, emphasised that the "hint" was just that. One European study has found a slight association and using a mobile for more than ten years. The few long-term users developed more acoustic neuroma brain tumours which were found close to the ear used for phoning.
But, because of the tiny numbers involved, "it could be by chance," he said. Asked whether the mobile phone could turn out to be the cigarette of the 21st century in terms of the damage it could inflict, he replied: "Absolutely."
Challis told the Times that the reason a long-term study is needed is because it sometimes takes a decade or longer for a cancer to develop from exposure to radiation or a toxin.
He said that the study was necessary because all the important breakthroughs in what caused cancers had shown that the effects often took more than ten years to show. "You find absolutely nothing for ten years and then after that it starts to grow dramatically. It goes up ten times. You look at what happened after the atomic bombs at Nagasaki, Hiroshima. You find again a long delay, nothing for ten years. The same for asbestos."
Hopefully, these new studies will show that cell phones do not result in a higher likelihood of tumor growth but if cell phones do increase cancer risk we will all want to know. Past studies on cell phones have hinted at possible links to benign acoustic neuromas and lower sperm counts but a Danish long-term study disputed a cancer link. The Times article includes a helpful roundup of some past cell phones studies at the bottom of the article. CNET has an interesting chart that shows the cell phones with the highest radiation levels. Whether or not you fear cancer caused from cell phone radiation you should still make sure your cell phone is not dirtier than a toilet seat.
Posted on January 20, 2007
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Study Links Cell Phone Use to Male Infertility
The Daily Mail reports that a recent study of cell phone users could mean that men who use cell phones are at an increased risk of infertility. The study found that men who use cell phones for over four hours a day had a 25% lower sperm count.
US researchers in Cleveland and New Orleans, and doctors in Mumbai, India, looked at more than 360 men undergoing checks at a fertility clinic who were classified into three groups according to their sperm count.
Men who used a mobile for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile.
The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third.
They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, with just one-fifth looking normal under a microscope.
Professor Ashok Agarwal, director of the Reproductive Research Centre at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, who led the study, said "Almost a billion people are using cell phones around the world and the number is growing in many countries at 20 to 30 per cent a year.
The findings are alarming but a much broader and larger study will be need to verify the results. Four hours of cell phone use per day is also a considerable amount of cell phone use but apparently not uncommon since 114 of the 360 men in the study use their cell phones for four hours or more daily.
Posted on October 25, 2006
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Study Finds Cell Phones Dirtier Than Toilet Seats
ABC reports on a shocking new study has found that cell phones are dirtier than toilet seats.
New research out of the United Kingdom found mobile phones are a technological petri dish for tens of thousands of germs.
Why? Germs multiply in warm places. Between the heat the phones generate and the germs on faces and hands, you've got a bacterial breeding ground.
"You put it in a warm place, you hold it in your hand, you put it in your pocket like I do, it's nice and warm," said microbiologist Chuck Gerba. "Bacteria like that. It can grow in these types of places."
They also tested phones of the Good Morning America crew. The soundman from the Good Morning America show had the dirtiest phone.
"This is the dirtiest phone I have ever tested," Gerba said. "He has somewhere between 10 and 50 million bacteria on his phone. If there is ever a new life form on this planet, it will be on this phone."
Yikes! Surely, this will make GMA's soundman will disinfect his cellphone from now on. Apparently, Motorola also offers a germ fighting phone for those who are now paranoid after reading this entry.
Posted on August 21, 2006
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Study: Mobile Phones Affect Brain Function
The AFP reports that a new study by scientists from Swinburne University of Technology's Brain Sciences Institute in Melbourne have found cellphones can affect brain function. They study of patients making a 30-minute phone call found a lower reaction time but increased memory.
The researchers conducted a series of psychological tests on 120 volunteers as they were exposed to mobile phone emissions for half an hour. Another set of tests was conducted on volunteers who were not exposed to mobile phone radiation but thought they were.
The results, published in April's edition of the journal Neuropsychologia, showed a small but discernable change in brain function among those who were exposed to the electromagnetic fields that mobile phones generate. "The study showed evidence of slower response times for participants undertaking simple reactions and more complex reactions, such as choosing a response when there is more than one alternative," lead researcher Con Stough said.
"This could equate to driving a car and being distracted by another car pulling out in front of you. The drivers reaction time to chose between braking, turning or sounding the horn, could be affected, albeit slightly." The study also found that radiation from mobile phones seems to improve working memory, used for example when remembering a phone number long enough to dial it. He said further work was needed using magnetic resonance imaging to clarify the way mobile phones alter on the way the brain works.
The study only focused on the single phone call so it did not measure the risk of long term mobile phone use. They only wanted to prove that cellphones can affect brain function. Con Stough, the lead researcher, told the AFP: "We're just showing that the radiation is actually active on the brain. But the impairment is small. The convenience and the way that we communicate now these days outweighs that effect."
Now if they would only do a follow-up study to see what causes those phantom cellphone rings.
Posted on May 5, 2006
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Study Finds Cell Phone Brain Cancer Link
Reuters reports that a new Swedish study has found that long term use of cell phones does carry an extra risk of brain cancer -- especially on the side of the head where the phone is held.
The Dutch Health Council, in an overview of research from around the world, last year found no evidence radiation from mobile phones and TV towers was harmful. A four-year British survey released in January showed no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and the most common type of tumor.
However, researchers at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life said they looked at the mobile phone use of 905 people between the age of 20 and 80 who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and found a link.
"A total 85 of these 905 cases were so-called high users of mobile phones, that is they began early to use mobile and, or wireless telephones and used them a lot," the study said.
"The study also shows that the rise in risk is noticeable for tumors on the side of the head where the phone was said to be used," it added.
The study was able to follow a long term use of mobile phones because mobile phones have been around for some time in Sweden -- since 1984.
Posted on March 31, 2006
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