Mobile phones may cause brain tumour: WHO

Paris, Jun 1: The World Health Organisation's cancer experts said that mobile phone usage may cause brain cancer. Experts advised to use texting and hand-free devices to check the increased risk from cancer.

During an an eight-day meeting at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, researchers said that the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields generated by mobile devices are possibly carcinogenic to humans.

"We reached this classification based on review of the human evidence coming from epidemiological studies" pointing to an increased incidence of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, said Jonathan Samet, president of the work group.

The studies conducted by the researchers found higher risk of brain cancer in people who had used mobiles for an average of 30 minutes per day over a period of 10 years. IARC experts warned further increase in this phenomena as the number of phones and the average time spent using them have both climbed steadily in recent years.

IARC said that new review, conducted by a panel of 31 scientists from 14 countries, is the "first scientific evaluation of all the literature published on the topic with regard to increased risk of cancer."

Any how, IARC experts admonished that the latest findings is only a possibility and not a proven one. The report does not clearly states that the use of mobile phones cause tumor in human beings. It ranks mobile phones in the category Group 2B which is "possibly carcinogenic".

Mean while, the CTIA-The Wireless Association dismissed the report saying the "bias and other data flaws may be the basis for the results." The statement released by the association said that the classification "does not mean cell phones cause cancer."

OneIndia News