Research demonstrates that long-term use of mobile handsets, more than 10 years, can double the risk of contracting brain cancer. While a number of studies have concluded that there is no such risk, most of those studies only examined short-term use. But because a brain tumor can take 10 years to develop, studies without a long follow-up period are largely meaningless.
There is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumors, a link that will be "definitively proven" within 10 years.
While mobile phones may save lives in certain emergency situations, brain cancer is "a life-ending diagnosis."
It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking. While one billion people worldwide smoke tobacco, three times as many now use mobile phones.
Smoking is responsible for five million deaths each year.
A Swedish study in 2006 concluded that people who used mobile phones for an hour or more each day had a 240 percent higher brain tumor risk than non-users. Tumors were significantly more likely to develop on the side of the head where the phone was most often used.
Inspired in part by such studies, France has warned against mobile phone use (especially in children), Germany urges people to minimize their use of mobile handsets, and the European Environment Agency has called for minimizing exposure to cellular radiation.
Because mobile phone use began in the mid-1980s and it can take up to 20 years to diagnose a malignant solid brain tumor, In the years 2008-2012, we will have reached the appropriate length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the impact of this global technology on brain tumor incidence rates.
Malignant brain tumor incidence and its associated death rate will be observed globally to rise within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to meaningfully intervene.
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