 (Source: philadelphiacaraccidentslawyer.com)
While the research team admits that proving an absence of association is much more difficult that finding one, they believe this debate will have a clearer answer over the next few years
Several past studies have said that cell phones can cause many different health problems, such as issues with male fertility and possible negative effects on brain activity. The World Health Organization even placed cell phones in the same carcinogenic category as engine exhaust, lead and chloroform.
But despite all of these conclusions, researchers from the United States, Britain and Sweden have conducted a review of these already-published studies, and decided that there are no clear cancerous links between humans and cell phone use.
Anthony Swerdlow, study leader from Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, along with a team of researchers from the U.S. and Sweden, have found that the evidence for cell phones causing cancer is not all there, and that the World Health Organization's classification reflected the International Agency for Research on Cancer's need to "put mobile phones into a pre-defined risk category."
Among many of the studies reviewed was the largest cell phone study that was published last year. This particular study focused on 13,000 cell phone users over a period of 10 years. After reviewing the study,, Swerdlow concluded that it had methodological problems because it was based on interviews that asked participants to remember phone use going back several years earlier.
Swerdlow and his team also found that studies conducted around the world 20 years after the introduction of cell phones and 10 years after their widespread use have shown no increases in brain tumors.
"Although there remains some uncertainty, the trend in the accumulating evidence is increasingly against the hypothesis that mobile phone use can cause brain tumors in adults," said the study.
While Swerdlow admits that proving an absence of association is much more difficult that finding one, he believes this debate will have a clearer answer over the next few years.
"This is a really difficult issue to research," said David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study. "But even given the limitations of the evidence, this report is clear that any risk appears to be so small that it is very hard to detect -- even in the masses of people now using mobile phones."
Approximately 5 million handsets are in use today, and industry experts believe that a potential health threat would not likely hinder the use of these devices.
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