So reads the BBC headline. Oh dear, what are we going to worry about now? Fortunately, help is at hand, as the Cancer Research UK study reported “only” looked at the people using mobile phones for ten years. And look at the following quotes:
Senior investigator Professor Anthony Swedlow said: "Whether there are longer-term risks remains unknown, reflecting the fact that this is a relatively recent technology."
Dr Michael Clark from the Health Protection Agency said: "This is good news but we still need to be a bit cautious."
Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study provides further evidence that using mobile phones does not increase the risk of brain tumours.
"However, it is important that researchers continue to monitor phone users over the coming years as mobiles are still a relatively new invention."
In other words, still feel free to worry. It seems that, despite the mounting evidence, there will always be room for caution. In the case of mobile phones, the vast majority of people will continue to use theirs as normal and not worry, because they enjoy the benefits. However, similar concerns are also expressed about mobile phone masts, even though there is still no evidence of harm. The BBC1 “Should I worry” series covered both phones and masts last year, and did an interesting piece of research, reported as follows:
The Should I Worry About team decided to carry out a test. We put ten students in a house for ten days and erected a mobile mast in the garden. We weren't entirely honest with them though; we told the students the mast was on at the start of the experiment and off at the end. In fact it was off at the start and on at the end. What's interesting is that the only time any of the students felt ill was when the mast was OFF but they thought it was ON.
Our small experiment suggests that people's fear of phone masts can be a factor in making them feel unwell. There are some people though who might be affected by phone masts and a large study is just beginning at Essex University to try to spot these hypersensitive people.
Say no more?
// posted by Martin Livermore @
4:52 pm 
