Using Cell Phones for a Decade Raises Cancer Risk

A study has claimed that using mobile phones for more than a decade can double the risk of cancer.

The study, conducted by Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro and Professor Kjell Hansson Mild of Umea University, found that long-term mobile users had double the chance of getting a tumour on the side of the brain where they held the handset.

As a part of the study, the Swedish researchers analysed 11 studies conducted all worldwide.

The study looked at long-term mobile users as cancer can take more than a decade to develop, reports the Daily Mail.

It was found that almost all of the studies had discovered an increased risk of cancer of the glial cells that support and protect the nerve cells.

Also, there was an increased risk of acoustic neuromas - benign but often-disabling tumours, which cause deafness.

The study also revealed that those who used their phones for at least a decade were 20 per cent more likely to contract acoustic neuromas and 30 per cent more likely to get malignant gliomas.

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The risk was even greater on the side of the head where the handset is held. Long-term mobile users were at a two-fold risk of getting gliomas and two and a half times more likely to get the acoustic neuromas there as compared to other people.

The Swedish scientists asserted that the international standard enforced to protect mobile users from radiation emissions were not safe and needed updating and added that children should be discouraged from using mobiles because their thinner skulls and developing nervous systems made them especially vulnerable.

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The research is published in the issue of the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine.

Source-ANI
VEN/C