One More Time: Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors?

It's one of those endless debates - and a new report claims telecom-funded studies downplay the risk of cancer from cell phones, and that children are particularly at risk.

It’s one of those endless debates that’s starting to border on myth…or urban legend, depending who you believe: does using a cell phone increase one’s risk of cancer, particularly tumors in the ear or brain? Many studies have claimed to find no link between cell phone use and increased risk of cancer, but some others claim a link or that the naysayer’s findings aren’t conclusive. Today, the International EMF Collaborative issued a new report (available as PDFs in US Letter and A4 format) that comes down squarely on cell-phones-cause-cancer side of the debate, and offers 15 reasons to be concerned, and claims children in particular are more at-risk for developing brain tumors from cell phone use.

“Exposure to cellphone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled,” said lead author and member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society Lloyd Morgan, in a statement. “Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cellphones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia. The public must be informed.”

The report is particularly critical of the 13-nation Interphone study, funded by the telecommunications industry, that launched in 1999. The study was intended to evaluate the risk of tumors from cell phone use but the International EMF Collaborative claims the results published to date show a systemic skew by excluding a large number of people, including children and young adults, users of cordless phones, folks too ill with brain tumors to be interviewed, and folks with particular types of brain tumors. The report also criticizes for the Interphone report for not making researchers available so the study’s methodology can be examined.

The report recommends further research into the health impacts of cell phone use, and goes even further in urging certain establishments be kept as free of wireless device radiation as possible: those locations would include schools, day cares, retirement homes, and health care facilities.