Study: No overall link between cell phones and brain cancer

From staff and wire reports

(CNN) -- Head-turning research suggests there's no link between cell phone use and brain cancer, researchers said Tuesday, though the new study fails to answer key questions about whether there are any long-term risks in cellular telephone use.

"We found whether or not one used one, how much they used it, had no bearing on the risk of brain cancer," said Dr. Mark Malkin, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a co-author of the new report.

His findings were based upon a study of 891 adults who used their cell phones for less than three years on average between 1994 and 1998. The data, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, did find a slightly increased risk for a rare type of brain cancer among cell phone users, but the authors say the incidence of the disease was not significant enough to warrant concern.

MORE CNN Medical Correspondent Holly Firfer talks about cell phone studies    VIDEO CNN's Holly Firfer reports on research partly funded by a manufacturer's group Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"I think more studies need to be done, but I also think if you started doing studies now -- you need to include teens, digital phones with high band width, longer years of exposure, using more minutes per month," said Malkin. He said long-term studies on the order of five-to-ten years would yield better research.

The JAMA study, funded by the industry group Wireless Technology Research and the National Cancer Institute, comes as more people become concerned about the radio frequency energy, or "RF," emitted by the typical cell phone antenna. Telecommunication industry experts say those RFs, even when they are near a person's ear, are not strong enough to cause any harm.

"Cell phones must meet very strict government standards before they are sold to the public," said Jo-Anne Basile of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. "Those standards include a substantial margin of safety."

Since cell phones were introduced in the United States in 1984, conflicting data have emerged from safety studies on animals and humans. The Food and Drug Administration has said there is no evidence that the phones are unsafe, but it has joined with the wireless industry in sponsoring research on the devices.

The health issue is sure to get further attention as cell phones' popularity rises even among the world's poorest nations. The International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, for instance, reports that in some Latin American countries wireless subscribers now outnumber customers of traditional fixed-line telephone companies.

Even the British have taken note. Health officials there are warning parents to limit their children's exposure to cell phones for fear of the unknown.

Professor Henry Lai of the University of Washington, whose animal research linked cellular phone signals with cell damage in rat brains, called the JAMA study "very preliminary and inconclusive."

"Since most solid tumors take 10 to 15 years to develop, it is probably too soon to see an effect," Lai said.

CNN Medical Correspondent Holly Firfer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer Update on Mobile Phones
Wow.com - the World of Wireless Communication
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
ITU - International Telecommunication Union
Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association

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