• 12/22/2007
  • United Kingdom
  • staff
  • Cellular- News (www.cellular-news.com)

A new medical study is reporting that cell phone use raises the risk of mouth cancer. Five years of heavy use increased the chances of developing a tumor by around 50 percent compared with people who had never used a mobile phone.

Previous studies into the links between phones and cancer have generated conflicting results with the vast majority claiming to have found no evidence of serious health risks, although some have found increases in cancer rates around the ear.

The lifestyles of 402 people with benign mouth tumors and 56 with malignant tumors were compared to a control group of 1,266 people. Those who used mobile phones were more likely than normal to develop parotid gland tumors. The parotid is the largest of the salivary glands and sits at the back of the mouth not far from the ear. Long-term users of mobile phones tended to develop tumors on the same side of the head as the phone was normally held. People who used mobile phones in rural areas, where the phone has to work harder to make contact with the nearest base station, were found to be at greater risk. The cause of the heightened risk was not established.

Most studies have looked at the way the electromagnetic fields created by phones warm tissue; however, the levels of the fields are thought too small to have a heating effect. Instead, some researchers believe the fields have the power to disrupt chemical bonds within cells or damage DNA. The lead researcher – Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, from the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Hashomer, Israel – urges caution regarding drawing conclusions.

Source:
The research, carried out in Israel, was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.