Mobile Phones Might Indeed Cause Brain Tumors … WHO
- June 2nd, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
If you are on the phone for half an hour a day, it is possible that in ten years it will cause you to have cancer of the acoustic nerve or brain.
That is the definitive ruling of a conclave of leading scientists who assembled this week at Lyon, as a branch of the World Health Organisation.
Up until now the persistent claims of danger have been dismissed through lack of evidence – and that has now changed.
A member of the group, Bruce Armstrong, Professor of Public Health at Sydney University (picture), told Australian radio (1.6.11), until this week it could not have been said that mobile phones would cause cancer.
“We think now that mobile phones possibly mightâ€, he said.
That conclusion came out of a kind of meta-research project, a round-up of existing work that might throw light on the effects of electro-magnetic emissions from the hand-held devices.
It took in biological research, experiments using animals, and epidemiological studies, which have come together as evidence that spells trouble for a world with, already, 5 billion cell phones for 6.9 billion people.
The scientists made the point that harm was possible only in the case of heavy use – but defined that in terms of fairly common telephone behaviour.
Denials and challenges immediately began to flow worldwide.
See EUAustralia, “Uh-oh, Could This Phones Revolution Really Be Harmful?â€, 24.5.11.
Reference
ABC, Sydney, Prof. Bruce Anderson (interview Fran Kelly), Radio National, 1.6.11.
Reuters, London, “WHO says cell phone use ‘possibly carcinogenic’”, 1.6.11. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/uk-cancer-cellphones-idUSLNE74U06620110601, (2.6.11).
James Gallagher Health reporter, “Mobiles ‘may cause brain cancer’â€, BBC News, London, 31.5.11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13608444, (2.6.11).
Pictures   Sydney University