Talk away on your mobile with greater ease now – for a study involving almost half a million people has found that contrary to popular fears, using a cell phone, even for several years does not increase risks of brain tumor or cancer.
The study, which was conducted by researchers from Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, analyzed cellular phone users foe a period of almost twenty years. Totally 420,095 people were involved in this largest to date study on cell phone effects, all of whom were users between 1982 and 1995. Significantly, many of those who were users in the earlier part of the time span had used phones which emitted greater levels of radio frequency radiation, that allegedly harm the brain.
On following up with these users, the team led by Dr Joachim Schuz found that 14,249 cancer cases occurred among those men and women. However, these rates were consistent with the percentage of cancer instances of the general population that did not use cell phones as well. The researchers found no link or connection between the cancer and the use of cell phones. This was true even in the case of those who used the earlier models that emitted more radiation as well – thereby proving strongly that the radiation had no harmful long-term or short-term effects at all.
In fact, the data which is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showed that men who used cell phones had lesser chances of developing cancer than normal. However, this might be attributed to that fact that those who used cells at that time also tended to be richer, lead a healthier life and smoke less.
Although Dr. Schuz is apprehensive about whether even this long term, large-scale study will finally put users at ease, there are several aspects that make these results very reliable. The first one is its nationwide coverage and the long period of following up with participants. Secondly, as expert on tumors Professor Tricia McKinney from the University of Leeds states, data used was from records of mobile phone companies. This is much more dependable than individual users' memory regarding the frequency of usage.
These results are particularly reassuring considering the surge in cell phone use in recent years. Currently statistics show that there are more handsets in use in Britain than the number of people – totaling 62.5 million sets.
