The risk of brian tumors from mobile phones may be increased by a factor of four, if a new study by Vini Gautam Khurana PhD, FRACS is credible.
Here is a link to his 2008 paper “Mobile Phones and Brain Tumours – A Public Health Concern“.
The author has set up his own web page www.brain-surgery.us and gives his attributes as a Staff Specialist Neurosurgeon, The Canberra Hospital, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Australian National University Medical School,Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. It appears to have no peer review, but may point to possible long term health effects of mobile phone usage. It will be interesting to see if a derivative of this work gets published in a peer reviewed journal.
I cannot see the paper having much real impact in its present form.
What interests me is the mechanism that may produce the tumors, as no study to date has linked mobile phone radiation with this sort of effect. Most known effects are biological (a tiny amount of heating of tissue) or incidents like car accidents from being distracted.
The author notes “there is a growing body of statistically significant evidence for a relationship between the overall length of use of a mobile phone and the delayed occurrence of a brain tumour on the same side of the head as the “preferred side” for mobile phone usage. The elevated risk (increased odds) appears to be in the order of 2 – 4 fold. It is postulated that some individuals may be more susceptible to developing a malignant brain tumour when compared to others exposed to similar durations and strengths of electromagnetic radiation. This susceptibility may be genetically predetermined. The effects of this kind of radiation are likely to be cumulative and long-term.”
