People who talk on mobile phones are up to five times more likely to develop brain tumours than those who stick to landlines, academics have warned. They say a number of previous studies into mobile phone safety ‘substantially underestimated’ the cancer risks and that tumours are much more common on the side of the head to which the mobile is held than on the other side.
After reanalysing the earlier studies they concluded that the risk of these tumours is between 10 and 500 per cent higher with long-term mobile phone use. Lead researcher Lloyd Morgan warned yesterday that the findings raised the possibility of ‘a brain tumour pandemic’ unless people change their pattern of mobile phone use. Mr Morgan, of the Environmental Health Trust, a U.S. campaign group, spoke out after re-examining the figures from six previous studies.