Interphone Study finds increased risk of glioma and meningioma for regular mobile phone users

Source: Stopumts.nl May 15th 2010 updated 17 mei 2010

Brain tumour risk increases after many hours of mobile phone use, according to results of Interphone study by WHO/IARC

People who have used a mobile phone more than 1640 hours (ten years of 27 minutes a day) have an increased risk of glioma and meningioma, two kinds of brain tumours. That appears from the results of the Interphone study on the relationship between brain tumours and mobile phone use. The study was conducted by the International Agency for the Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Before, other research found that people who use a mobile phone regularly have an increased risk of acoustic neuroma, another tumour in the head.

The results of the Interphone study are published in an article for the International Journal of Epidemiology (2010; 1-20), a scientific magazine by Oxford University Press.

Crawling the world wide web (as the editors of Stopumts did) the article can be found and read freely at this place: www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/ije/press_releases/freepdf/dyq079.pdf .

According to the article, people who ever were regular mobile phone users have a lowered risk of glioma and meningioma (0.81 and 0.79 times less). After ten years of regular mobile phone use still a lowered risk is found (0.98 and 0.83 times less). But in the decile with more than 1640 hours of use, the risk of these brain tumours is found to be heightened (1.40 and 1.15 times more).

People who use a mobile phone more than 1640 hours within 1 to 4 years have a more heightened risk of glioma and meningioma (3.77 and 4.8 times as much). These results are based on few cases and controls, however.

Possibly using a mobile phone (absorbing electromagnetic radiation produced by the antenna of the mobile phone) can be compared to using stimulating agents. For example, health increases by drinking one glass of wine a day, but decreases by one bottle of wine a day.

The Interphone study group however gives no explanation for the results, other than a bias concerning users with less than 1640 hours and implausible results for users with more than 1640 hours. The study group thinks overall there is no heightened risk, nevertheless emphasizes more investigations are needed.

Though originally acoustic neuroma (schwannoma) and parotid gland tumours were part of the Interphone study, the article does not treat their relationship with mobile phone use. Other research (Schoemaker c.s.) has found an increase of acoustic neuroma after ten years of mobile phone use.

The Interphone study was held in 13 countries, based on interviews. The research has cost about 30 million US Dollars and originally should have been completed in 2005. The delay was caused by differences of opinion between the participating scientists.

Source: www.stopumts.nl .

Respecting an embargo, Stopumts will publish the WHO press release on May 18th 01.30 a.m.

For the article on Oxford Journals see the attached PDF file

Related article: electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-health-blog/international-emf-collaborative-advisory-on-forthcoming-interphone-brain-tumor-study/ .

Bekijk het PDF bestand


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