£3m 'cancer-link' mobile phone study

More than 200,000 volunteers are to take part in a five year study to see if long-term mobile phone users face a greater risk of brain cancer.

The Times reports that Professor Lawrie Challis, a world expert on mobile phone radiation, is in the final stages of negotiations with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry to fund the £3 million study.

One European study has found a slight association between the risk of brain tumours and using a mobile phone for more than 10 years.

Prof Challis, who chairs the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research programme, told The Times the tiny numbers seen so far mean "it could be by chance".

But when asked by the newspaper if the mobile phone could turn out to be the cigarette of the 21st century in terms of the damage it could inflict, he said: "Absolutely".

He explained that all of the important studies into what caused cancers had shown that the effects often took more than 10 years to show.

He said: "You find absolutely nothing for 10 years and then after that it starts to grow dramatically. It goes up 10 times.

"You look at what happened after the atomic bombs at Nagasaki, Hiroshima. You find again a long delay, nothing for 10 years. The same for asbestos.

"The fact that you don't see anything in 10 years is also more or less what you would expect if there is something happening.

"Because there is a hint and because the professional epidemiologists who I trust and who do this all the time feel there is a chance that this could be real, they can't rule out the possibility.

"And because we all know that most cancers don't show up for more than 10 years I think you have to carry on. It's essential we carry on.

"Otherwise what are we going to do? If in 10 or 15 years' time people start getting trouble it won't show up until it's a really big effect."

The move was welcomed by Conservative shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, who told The Times: "It's not scaremongering to ask these questions for future generations.

"At the moment there is little evidence to suggest that the use of mobile phones has any impact on health, but it is vital that there is continuing research to establish if long-term use is a danger."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the Stewart Report pointed to the fact that mobile phones do not put the health of the general public at risk.

But she said: "There should be a programme of research that looks into possible health effects.

"There is a pot of funding available for such research.

"This is one project that is being looked at."

But the spokeswoman said a final decision on which projects would be funded has not been taken.

Copyright Press Association 2007