Study claims that mobiles aren't linked to brain tumours

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Theories on mobile phones causing cancer have taken a knock today as Danish scientists have shown stable case numbers of brain tumours since such handsets became popular.

The research was conducted by the Danish Cancer Society and claims that trends in cancer rates amongst 20 to 79 year olds from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have not changed since mobiles were introduced in the mid-nineties.

The study examined 59,684 brain tumour cases that had been diagnosed between 1974 to 2003.

It showed that cancers known as gliomas only increased slightly by 0.5 per cent a year among men and 0.2 per cent a year among women. For meningioma cancers, it was slightly higher with an increase of 0.8 per cent among men and 3.8 per cent among women. The slight increases have been steady since 1974, suggesting the advent of mobile phones isn't the cause.

However, the scientists have warned that further research would be needed on a long-term basis to back this up.

Isabelle Deltour, the leader of the study for the Danish Cancer Society, based in Copenhagen, said in a statement: “Our results extend those of previous studies of time trends up to 1998 by adding five years of follow-up."

She added: "Because of the high prevalence of mobile phone exposure in this population and worldwide, longer follow-up of time trends in brain tumour incidence is warranted."

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