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Technology Changes
Hinder Phone Cancer Research
Total Telecom
Journalist: Jeremy Scott-Joynt
January 19, 1998
LONDON -- Constant changes in the design of mobile telephone handsets are
hindering research into possible health risks of mobile technology, according to
a senior World Health Organization scientist.
Researchers in recent years have shown that exposure to radio-frequency
radiation -- such as that emitted by mobile phones -- can cause damage to cells
in laboratory conditions.
Although no conclusive scientific evidence has yet been published to show that
humans are seriously at risk of cancer or tumors from using mobile phones,
lawsuits have already been launched in the U.S. by people who claim to have
become ill through using mobile phones.
But handset manufacturers are changing the designs of their products so
frequently that research into long-term effects of the technology will be made
difficult, according to Elisabeth Cardis, who heads a multinational World Health
Organization study into whether the radiation from mobile phones is
carcinogenic.
Handset makers are already concerned about possible cancer risks "even
before we can find evidence to prove a connection" between radio frequency
radiation and cancer, Cardis said. "The design keeps changing. The new
phones have shielding, and the antennae are tilted backwards. Even two
centimeters can make a lot of difference to the amount of radio frequency
radiation absorbed."
The constant changes to handset design are "actually going to make our
study a bit more difficult. With the phones changing so fast, it will be hard to
build in controls to the study," Cardis said.
Bruce Hockings, a scientist in Melbourne, Australia, urged cellular phone
service companies two years ago not to target young people with advertising,
because he said the possible long-term ill effects of the technology were not
known.
According to the World Health Organization, there is little evidence yet to
suggest a connection. But the organization is nevertheless looking at the
possible connection between mobile phones and cancer under its EMF research
project, which looks at the health implications of radio emissions.
A spokesman for Ericsson, the Swedish mobile telephone developer, said his
company had long taken perceptions of possible risks to health into account when
designing handsets. This was "not because they are proven, but
because it's important to the customer, so naturally it's important to us,"
he said.
So far seven countries, including Australia, France, the U.K., Israel, Italy,
Sweden and Canada, have agreed to conduct broad case studies of people with head
and neck tumours to see whether there are any patterns which might be linked
with mobile phone use.
The studies which exist already have a number of limitations "because they
were lab tests rather than studies of a wide population, and because they could
not be repeated," Cardis said. "If there is no risk, then that's fine.
If there is a slight risk, then we need to know," she added.
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