Another Study into Mobile Phones and Health

Britain's Professor Lawrie Challis is planning to monitor over 200,000 people as part of an ongoing investigation into the health issues of mobile phones. He plans to monitor people for any signs of an increase in diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

The chairman of the UK mobile phone safety research program said soon-to-be-published results revealed using mobiles was safe in the short term. But the data revealed "a hint" of problems for people who used them for more than 10 years, he said. He is calling for a longer-term study as many effects of cancers could take over a decade to show up.

"The dilemma is the time that it takes for a disease to appear.

"We know from smoking and with the bomb falling in Hiroshima that nothing was seen for 10 years." He added: "The responsible thing to do is to continue monitoring."

Asked whether mobile phones could turn out to be the 21st century health equivalent of cigarettes, he replied: "Absolutely."

However, a recent analysis of long term medical records in Denmark showed no long-term increases in cancers amongst mobile phone users.

Prof Challis told The Times newspaper he was in the final stages of negotiating a £ 3 million grant from the British Government to proceed with his studies."

Posted to the site on 22nd January 2007