WHO to Report Cell Phones Linked to Cancer in Study
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The World Health Organization (WHO) will publish the results of a ten-year study that found heavy cell phone users face a higher risk of developing brain tumors , London’s newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported October 24. There are 4 billion cell phone users worldwide, 270 million users in the United States who could be affected by the results.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.
While cell phone manufacturers and service providers have contended for years that cell phone use is safe, studies may have linked it to three types of brain tumors glioma, meningioma and acoustic neurinoma in addition to parotid salivary gland tumors. The WHO’s results will be based on an Interphone study conducted in 13 countries, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the UK using a common core protocol. Interphone is the largest case-control study to date investigating whether mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer and, more specifically, whether the RF fields emitted by mobile phones are carcinogenic.
A breakdown of the latest findings, seen by The Daily Telegraph, shows that six of eight Interphone studies found some rise in the risk of glioma (the most common brain tumor), with one finding a 39 per cent increase. Two of seven studies reported a higher risk of acoustic neurinoma after using cell phones for 10 years. "In the light of a number of studies which, though limited, suggest a possible effect of radio-frequency radiation, precautions are important," Dr. Elisabeth Cardis, the head of Interphone told The Daily Telegraph.
Cardis is not the first to warn about risks associated with cell phone usage. In July of 2008, ABC News reported that Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, contradicted years of research in a memo to 3,000 colleagues warning them of a connection between cell phone usage and brain cancer and cautioning them to keep phones away from children. "Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use," he wrote. "Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later."
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), took over as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee after Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), an avid cell phone user, died of a glioma brain tumor in August 2009. In a hearing before the subcommittee in September 2009, Senators Harkin and Arlen Specter (D- PA), questioned John Bucher, the Associate Director of the National Toxicology Program (administered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) who is performing cell phone radiation carcinogenicity studies. Butcher told the subcommittee, “There’s been some hints, recently, that there is an increase in brain cancers in people who’ve used these cellular communication devices for a number of years.”
“I’m reminded of this Nation’s experience with cigarettes. Decades passed between the first warnings about smoking tobacco and the final, definitive conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer,” said a statement of Senator Tom Harkin regarding the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the Health Effects of Cell Phones.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit consumer protection organization, warns cell phone users to limit their phone usage and wants the U.S. government to require cell phone companies to label their products’ radiation output so that consumers can see it at the point of sale. Until then, the EWG has created a list of all cell phones available by the major carriers ranked by radiation emissions.
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