Mobile phone brain cancer link rejected

There is no proven link between mobile phones and instances of brain cancer, new research has claimed, potentially ending 20 years of debate over the health risk.

The study, conducted by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Denmark, looked at more than 350,000 mobile phone users over an 18-year period.

Researchers concluded that users were at no greater risk than anyone else of developing brain cancer, in findings published on the British Medical Journal website.

The results come after a series of other studies reached the same conclusion over mobile phone usage.

However, separate research by the World Health Organisation has warned that mobile phones could still bear a health risk as they may be carcinogenic.

The WHO has placed mobile phones in the same category as coffee, in that a carcinogenic link could not be totally ruled out but remains unproven.

The Danish report found that of the 358,403 mobile phone owners studied, 356 gliomas (a form of brain cancer) and 846 cancers of the central nervous system were discovered, which was in line with usual incidence rates among those who did not own a mobile.

Even among people who had been using mobiles the longest, 13 years or more, the risk was found to be no higher than typical.

Cancer Research UK's head of evidence and health information Hazel Nunn told the BBC: "These results are the strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults."

However, the researchers admitted that mobile phone use warranted further study to ensure cancers were not developing in the longer term, along with the effect of usage on children.

The Department of Health is continuing to advise that anyone under the age of 16 should only use mobile phones for essential purposes and always keep calls short.

The Danish study also did not cover "corporate subscriptions", essentially people using mobile phones for business, who could be among the heaviest users.

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