Mobile Telephony Increases
Brain Tumour Risk
National Institute Of Working Life
August 21, 2002
NMT (Nordic Mobil Telephone) users run a greater risk of suffering a
brain tumour. This is the conclusion of the largest study so far into mobile
phone use and the risk of brain tumours, published in the European Journal
of Cancer Prevention.
It is clear that NMT users
should exercise caution, states Professor Kjell Hansson Mild of the Swedish
National Institute for Working Life, who worked on the study with Professor
Lennart Hardell of Örebro University Hospital.
The study comprises 1,617 patients diagnosed with a brain tumour during the
period 1997 to June 2000 in central Sweden. These were then compared with an
equally large control group with no brain tumours. NMT users were shown
statistically to run a 1.3 times greater risk. Viewed over a ten year
period, the risk is 1.8 times greater.
The risk is higher primarily in the temporal lobe, on the same side as the
phone is used. Here the risk is 2.5 times greater. The type of tumour
showing the largest increase, a 3.5 times greater risk, is tumours of the
auditory nerve.
There was not the same clear increase in risk for GSM (Global System for
Mobile Communications) phone users. In this context, the use of GSM is a
relatively new phenomenon and nobody in the study had been using such a
phone for more than ten years.
Although we can see similar tendencies, any conclusions regarding these
phones must wait until the results of other ongoing studies are published,
comments Kjell Hansson Mild.