US says cell phones won't kill you

At least, not yet... probably...

By Lucy Sherriff, 20th December 2000

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There is no link between mobile phone use and brain cancer, at least in the short term, according to a study of a group of brain cancer patients in the US.

This latest version of events comes from researchers in the States who published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They said that there was a paucity of data on the subject, which made it impossible to strongly refute or confirm concerns about mobile phone safety.

The researchers, from the American Health Foundation, found that there was very little difference between the mobile phone habits of a group of cancer patients and a control group who had used their phones for about three years.

The researchers used a group of 469 brain cancer patients, aged between 18 and 80, and a matched control group of 422 people. Regular use of a mobile phone was defined as having a subscription to a cellular service provider.

The cancer patients had used their phone for a mean of 2.8 years while the control group averaged 2.7 years. The median monthly hours of use were 2.5 for cases and 2.2 for controls.

The scientists said that the data demonstrated no link between phone use and cancer development, a very different thing from saying that phone use does not cause cancer. They acknowledged that this is not the final word on the subject.

"Further studies are needed to account for longer induction period," they said. "Especially with slow-growing tumours." ®