X-SciTech

Studies: No Cellular/Cancer Link

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 19, 2000 / 3:54 PM EST / CBS

For years it's been on the minds of many cellular telephone users: all that radiation, for all that time, that close to the brain…is it really safe?

The co-author of the first of two studies released Tuesday, Dr. Mark Malkin of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said it is.

"Using your cell phone more doesn't make you more at risk of developing a brain tumor," Malkin said.

Malkin just finished his study, partially funded by the cell phone industry, on whether cell phones cause cancer, CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports.

The study, funded by the industry group Wireless Technology Research and the National Cancer Institute, appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study of 891 people did find a slightly increased risk for a rare type of brain cancer, but the researchers said it was not statistically significant.

While they acknowledge longer-term studies are needed, the researchers said the overall results should reassure the more than 86 million cell phone users nationwide.

"We feel confident that the results reflect that cell phones don't seem to cause brain cancer," said epidemiologist Joshua Muscat.
"It didn't matter how much or how little you used the cell phone. There was no difference in the risk of brain cancer," Dr. Malkin said.

Publication of Muscat's research prompted the New England Journal of Medicine to release a study Tuesday showing similar results. The study, led by National Cancer Institute researchers and set for publication on Jan. 11, looked at 782 brain cancer patients and 799 people without cancer.

Maximum cell phone use was at least an hour per day for five or more years, and no brain-cancer link was found even at that level. The authors of the second study said longer-term use needs more study.

Other researchers agree.

"It is irresponsible at this point, given the other scientific evidence from around the world, to use this study as reassurance to consumers," said George Carlo, who just published a book criticizing the cell phone industry, said.

Carlo used to run the research arm of the cell phone industry that funded part of the study.

"Earlier versions of the study clearly indicated a significant increase in the risk of rare brain tumors among cellular phone users," Carlo said.

Professor Henry Lai of the University of Washington, whose animal research linked cellular phone signals with cell damage in rat brains, called the study "very preliminary and inconclusive."

"Since most solid tumors take 10 to 15 years to develop, it is probably too soon to see an effect," Lai said.

Malkin said researchers in his study refined their results over time and insist their final numbers show cell phones are safe — probably. But even they acknowledge that their numbers only reflect cell phone us of roughly three years.

"You can't say from that what will happen if people use cellphones for four years, or eight years, 12 years or 20 years," Malkin said.

And that's why some researchers are still worried. Millions of people keep talking on cell phones while scientists keep talking about how much the doctors don't know.