No cancer link to cellphones?

THE largest study to date of the safety of mobile phones has found no clear link to brain cancer, although it said further study is merited given their increasingly intensive use.

'The study doesn't reveal an increased risk, but we can't conclude that there is no risk because there are enough findings that suggest a possible risk,' the study's chief author, Elisabeth Cardis, told AFP.

The results of the Interphone study, which included 2,708 cases of glioma tumours and 2,409 meningioma tumours in 13 countries over a 10-year period, is due to be published on Tuesday in the International Journal of Epidemiology. It found no increased risk of glioma or meningioma tumours after 10 years of using a mobile phone, although it found 'suggestions of higher risk' for the heaviest users.

The heaviest users who reported using their phones on the same side of their heads had a 40 per cent higher risk for gliomas and 15 per cent for meningiomas, but the researchers said 'biases and errors' prevent making a causal link.

Given that the heaviest users in the study talked an average of half an hour per day on their mobile phones, a figure which is not heavy by today's standards, the researchers recommended further research.

They also cited the need for the study of the impact of mobile phone use among young people, who have rapidly become intensive users, and who were not included in the Interphone study. The researchers noted, however, that the latest mobile phones have lower emissions, and the popularity of hands-free devices and texting reduce exposure to the head.