Mobile phones CAN cause brain tumours, court rules in landmark case

Italy's Supreme Court has ruled that there is a 'casual link' between an Italian businessman's brain tumour and him spending up to 6 hours a day on the telephone for 12 years.

The Oncologist and neurosurgeon who both gave evidence on Businessman Innocente Marcolini's behalf made the point that tumours often take 15 years to appear, rendering a number of short term studies that appear to disprove a link between mobile phones and cancer problematic.

Oncologist and professor of environmental mutagenesis Angelo Gino Levis and neurosurgeon Dr Giuseppe Grasso gave evidence supporting Mr Marcolini's claim.

They argued that mobile and cordless phones emit electromagnetic radiation causing damage to cells and increasing the risk of tumours. But they added that many tumours don't appear for 15 years making short-term studies on mobile phone use redundant.

The jury is still out, however, for many scientists who claim it is still unknown what, if any, link there is between mobiles and brain tumours.

Daily Mail

Recently a Danish study based on 358,000 mobile users who had used a mobile for at least 10 years and 10,000 cancer suffers appears to disprove any link between mobile phones and cancer (Link).

The study has however been criticised by some scientists as being flawed in that it excluded heavy use business users. It did however find no link between cancer and mobile phone use even when users had been using the phone for 13 years or longer (Link).

Earlier on this month, a Danish study on more than 358,000 mobile users over 18-years-old found that those who used mobile phones for 10 years or more were no more at risk than those who never used them.

Researchers led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen found cancer rates in the central nervous system were almost the same in both long-term mobile phone users and non-users.

But other scientists disagreed, saying the Danish study excluded business users and included as non-users people who began using mobiles later on.

Daily Mail

Despite the Danish study apparently disproving a link between mobile phones and cancer, a 14 country, 31 scientist World Health Organisation working group, stated in 2011 that classified mobile phones as 'possibly carcinogenic'
(Link).

Furthermore, frontal and temporal lobe tumors in children have apparently increased by 50% in the last 20 years.

In April, The Children with Cancer conference highlighted figures published by the Office of National Statistics, which showed a 50 per cent increase in frontal and temporal lobe tumors between 1999 and 2009.

The ONS figures showed that the incident rate has risen from two to three per 100,000 people since 1999, while figures from Bordeaux Segalen University showed a one to two per cent annual increase in brain cancers in children.

Daily Mail

However, Manchester University researchers have stated that there has been no statistically significant increase in brain cancer in the UK.

Nonetheless, some governments around the world have started to decide to err on the side of caution. For instance, France has banned mobile phones in primary schools and advertising aimed at children, while Israel has passed legislation forcing adverts to carry a health warning that mobile phones may cause cancer.

What is potentially worrying is that like cigarette smoking, the effects on health of heavy mobile phone use may only become apparent in the long term. It is cautionary to bear in mind how long it took for the effects of smoking on health to be conclusively proved and accepted by the scientific community.

Anything that effects electrical functions in the brain can cause altered brain chemistry. Altered brain chemistry can cause all sorts of problems including cancer. Even the speaker of a regular telephone can cause cancer if you are on it long enough. Increasing all the radio signals around the world, or even putting metal in the mouth in the teeth causes changes in brain chemistry associated with possible future problems of many sorts.

Sticking a cell phone next to the skull and transmitting is definitely going to change the brains waves. Long term effects and misjudgements caused by unsettled brain activity is the main issue, if you get in a car accident because of a chemical change in the brain because of a phone, it is contributing to the accident.

Two point to add.

A great deal of the research into this issue is funded by the phone companies and has about the same value as all the 'research' paid for by big tobacco. That is to say - none!

Second, many youth and young adults don't use the phone next to their heads. They either use SMS as their primary communication. They get into this habit due to cost. When they do use voice, they tend to use it hands free so their hands can do other things like access a keyboard. As such they will probably not be affected.

If you need to use mobile or cordless phones for extended time, use a headset (not a blue-tooth), one with wires.

P

Good thing I dont own a cell phone.

I do intend to get one for emergency purposes. Though I plan to have the battery out at all times. Call me paranoid but the last thing I want is the government to have the ability to monitor me wherever I am. If you think about the fact that 6 of 7 billion people have cellphones, almost the entire world can be monitored if the government so see's fit.

Each day the surveillance society becomes implemented more and more. I find it astounding that they managed to get cellphones in the hands of so many people.

A new report from the International Telecommunications Union found that at the end of 2011, 6 billion people had a cellphone subscription. That means 6 in 7 of us have a cellphone. It also means that 1 billion of us do not.

www.latimes.com...

I also find it funny that this article acts like 1 billion people not having cellphones is surprising. I found it much more surprising that 6 billion do.

Edit: Also, thanks OP for posting this, SnF.

Originally posted by Renegade2283

I do intend to get one for emergency purposes. Though I plan to have the battery out at all times. Call me paranoid but the last thing I want is the government to have the ability to monitor me wherever I am. If you think about the fact that 6 of 7 billion people have cellphones, almost the entire world can be monitored if the government so see's fit.

Each day the surveillance society becomes implemented more and more. I find it astounding that they managed to get cellphones in the hands of so many people.

At the danger of going off topic, apparently it was the invention of the typewriter that allowed the efficient administration of centralized states, prior to world war one.

It would appear that the cheapness of electronic data collection and of its storage is facilitating the advance of 'big brother'.

At the end of the day of course, back on topic, common sense suggests that the fields coming out of mobile phones can't be entirely benign.

reply to post by ollncasino


I concur, it has to be doing some damage, even if the damage is un-measurable in small doses. That doesnt mean that it is not doing any damage in those doses, maybe just killing a few brain cells here and there.

Btw, sorry for going off topic, though with numbers like that a lot more people are exposed to this potentially harmful form of radiation.

reply to post by ollncasino


Cancer is caused by damage to DNA. This is a pretty commonly accepted fact in modern medicine. While ionizing radiation (x-rays, radon, etc...) can cause damage to the DNA of organisms, non-ionizing radiation (radio frequency, light, etc...) does not.

Cell phones operate using radio frequency --> Radio frequency is non-ionizing radiation --> Non-ionizing radiation does not damage DNA --> If there is no capacity to damage DNA, cell phones cannot cause cancer --> Cell phones do not cause cancer. QED.

If radio frequency radiation can cause cancer then you run into a whole world of other devices that should be linked as well.

*Two way radios (walkie talkies).
*Equipment from HAM radios. There should be an association with the operators and their equipment, which can be very high powered in some scenarios, and an increased rate of cancer in general.
*Bluetooth headsets and devices.
*Some remote controls and computer peripherals.
*Television and radio stations.
*Wireless routers.

Why are there no studies to see the potential of cancer being caused by these and other devices?

One last question: Did any of these studies that say cell phone use might cause cancer factor in possible radon exposure into their data sets? It is a very common and naturally occurring radioactive element.

reply to post by rickymouse


Do you have anything factual to back up your claim that cell phone usage can alter brain chemistry? Or that an altered brain chemistry leads to cancer?

reply to post by pheonix358


Do you actually know that these studies were funded by cell phone manufacturers, or are you just speculating and assuming? Do you have anything to back this claim up?

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


It's known for decades that cell phone radiation might alter brainwave activity and/or brain chemistry.

But in typical sequence of a study reporting an effect, a new study not, another yes, etc...

The latest to show an effect was that highly publicised study from NIH and Brookhaven researchers on JAMA last year. Study is free(Open Access).

Again the side of head effect showed itself to further inflame the long repeated claim of tumours appearing on the used side.

jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=645813

Preliminary Communication | February 23, 2011

Effects of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Signal Exposure on Brain Glucose Metabolism

Nora D. Volkow, MD; Dardo Tomasi, PhD; Gene-Jack Wang, MD; Paul Vaska, PhD; Joanna S. Fowler, PhD; Frank Telang, MD; Dave Alexoff, BSE; Jean Logan, PhD; Christopher Wong, MS

Author Affiliations: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland (Dr Volkow); National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda (Drs Volkow, Tomasi, and Telang and Mr Wong); and Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York (Drs Wang, Vaska, Fowler, and Logan and Mr Alexoff).

JAMA. 2011;305(8):808-813. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.186.

Context The dramatic increase in use of cellular telephones has generated concern about possible negative effects of radiofrequency signals delivered to the brain. However, whether acute cell phone exposure affects the human brain is unclear.

Objective To evaluate if acute cell phone exposure affects brain glucose metabolism, a marker of brain activity.

Design, Setting, and Participants Randomized crossover study conducted between January 1 and December 31, 2009, at a single US laboratory among 47 healthy participants recruited from the community. Cell phones were placed on the left and right ears and positron emission tomography with (18F)fluorodeoxyglucose injection was used to measure brain glucose metabolism twice, once with the right cell phone activated (sound muted) for 50 minutes (“on” condition) and once with both cell phones deactivated (“off” condition). Statistical parametric mapping was used to compare metabolism between on and off conditions using paired t tests, and Pearson linear correlations were used to verify the association of metabolism and estimated amplitude of radiofrequency-modulated electromagnetic waves emitted by the cell phone. Clusters with at least 1000 voxels (volume >8 cm3) and P < .05 (corrected for multiple comparisons) were considered significant.

Main Outcome Measure Brain glucose metabolism computed as absolute metabolism (μmol/100 g per minute) and as normalized metabolism (region/whole brain).

Results Whole-brain metabolism did not differ between on and off conditions. In contrast, metabolism in the region closest to the antenna (orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole) was significantly higher for on than off conditions (35.7 vs 33.3 μmol/100 g per minute; mean difference, 2.4 [95% confidence interval, 0.67-4.2]; P = .004). The increases were significantly correlated with the estimated electromagnetic field amplitudes both for absolute metabolism (R = 0.95, P < .001) and normalized metabolism (R = 0.89; P < .001).

Conclusions In healthy participants and compared with no exposure, 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the antenna. This finding is of unknown clinical significance.

reply to post by wujotvowujotvowujotvo


That's very interesting! Thank you for sharing that! I only read the abstract that you posted, but I'll start on the whole thing in a bit. I figure with my physics knowledge and my wife being a nurse practitioner I should be able to come up with some decent comments and questions about it.

Although, I must point out the very last sentence of the abstract.

This finding is of unknown clinical significance.

That surely doesn't lead to any correlation to causing cancer. From what I read there it only leads to an increase in glucose metabolism in the brain, which is something that happens during normal brain function.

Breathing the air CAN cause cancer as well.

Looking at the computer screen, reading tiny font on ATS CAN cause eye strain.