APRIL-MAY2008
to the words of a famous neuro-surgeon
Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking', The Independent, UK Brain
expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take
immediate steps to reduce radiation
By Geoffrey Lean, Sunday, 30 March 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news
/mobile-phones-more-dangerous-than-smoking-802602.html
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a
study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people
should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the
mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to
their radiation.
The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet
published of the health risks.
It draws on growing evidence - exclusively reported in the IoS in
October - that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk
of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating
official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few,
if any, people who had used the phones for that long.
Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of
mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people
to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called
for exposures to be reduced.
Professor Khurana - a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over
the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers
- reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has
put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the
research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a
scientific journal.
He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that
"there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link
between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this
will be "definitively proven" in the next decade.
Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis",
he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and
dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments
take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain
tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally
within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to
intervene medically.
"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health
ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who
told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three
billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as
smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure
to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.
DEMOGRAPHIC WAR LORDS COMMENT:
Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's
study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one
individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of
the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and
more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".