World's
Biggest Probe Into Mobile Phones And Cancer
Sunday Mirror
October 24, 1999
The world's biggest study into suspected links between mobile phones and cancer will take place in the New Year.
Nearly 9,000 cancer sufferers in 14 countries - including the UK and USA - will be interviewed by scientists in a £5.5 million study funded by the European Commission.
Researchers want to establish once and for all if there is a link between mobile phones and brain tumours and other cancers. And if there is, it could have disastrous consequences for the £300-billion-a-year industry. France-based Dr Elisabeth Cardis, who is leading the project, hopes to interview 7,000 brain tumour sufferers, 1,000 acoustic nerve cancer sufferers and 800 people with cancer of the saliva gland.
The brain, saliva gland and acoustic nerve centre in the ear are vulnerable to high doses of radiation from mobile phones.
Three UK cancer centres - in London, Edinburgh and Leeds - will take part in the two-and-a-half-year study, which will ask cancer sufferers exactly how much time they spent using mobile phones.
The mobile phone industry and medical research funds are helping pay for the study.
Results from it should be available by 2003 or 2004.
Dr Cardis said: "It is the biggest study of its kind ever conducted. It is very important that any link between mobile phones and cancer is investigated."
Thirteen million Britons, mostly aged 25 to 35, use mobile phones. About 300 million use mobiles worldwide.