Cell phone use does not appear to be hazardous to human health, according to U.K. study published today, though research gaps mean that the possibility of adverse health effects arising from mobile phone use cannot be entirely dismissed.
The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Programme's 2007 Report, a six year research program found no correlation between short term mobile phone use and brain cancer.
"None of the research supported by the Programme and published so far demonstrates that biological or adverse health effects are produced by radiofrequency exposure from mobile phones," the report concludes. "Reassuringly, no epidemiological association was found between short-term mobile phone use (less than ten years) and cancers of the brain and nervous system."
Concerns about the long-term effect of mobile phone use, however, will have to wait to be addressed by future research. "At present, very few people have used mobile phones for more than ten years, so it is not possible at present to rule out the detection of an association at some future date," the report says.
At present, a case-control study of brain cancers in children is being conducted in Sweden. And the MTHR recommends further studies of the long-term effects of mobile phone use, of possible effects on children, and of possible effects of diseases other than cancer, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Finally, the report finds that the while mobile phone use impairs drivers and raises the risk of accidents, the impairment is no greater than other in-car distractions such as talking with passengers or fiddling with the car stereo or air conditioning.
That said, the report offered a caveat: "There were, however, suggestions that the use of a mobile phone may draw on greater cognitive resources than other distractions."
The World Health Organization recommends that "a precautionary approach to the use of mobile phones should be adopted until more scientific evidence on its effects on health becomes available."
