Download a pdf of our January 2007 "News & Comment"

January 26... The latest Interphone findings pointing to a link between brain tumors and long-term use of a mobile phone (see January 22 below) should not be dismissed, according to members of the European research team that published the new results. "This is something you have to take seriously," Maria Feychting of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm told the Expressen, a Swedish national tabloid. Feychting advises those who are concerned to use a hands-free set to reduce radiation exposures.

Anssi Auvinen of STUK, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Helsinki, another coauthor of the new study, told the U.K. Telegraph that the location and timing of the tumors makes the finding plausible. "It seems credible as it was after long-term exposure —which makes sense in terms of the length of time it takes for tumors to develop— and it is localized to the side of the head where the handset is held," he said.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is taking a wait-and-see approach. Howard Cyr, CDRH's point man on cell phones and health, told RCR Wireless News that he wants to see the final Interphone results before drawing any conclusions. It's not clear when the full 13-country results will be published, but it will probably not be for some time.

The mobile phone industry has yet to offer any official comment. CTIA, the wireless association in Washington, did not include any mention of the new study in its daily news roundup distributed by e-mail.

The Florida Sun-Sentinel is so far the only U.S. newspaper to cover the new brain tumor study.

January 22... An international team of researchers has found new evidence that long-term use of a mobile phone may lead to the development of a brain tumor on the side of the head the phone is used. In a study which will appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Cancer, epidemiologists from five European countries report a nearly 40% increase in gliomas, a type of brain tumor, among those who had used a cell phone for ten or more years. The increase is statistically significant. In addition, there was a trend showing that the brain tumor risk increased with years of use. The new paper is posted on the journal's Web site.

This is the second type of tumor that has been linked to long-term cell phone use. In 2004, the Swedish Interphone group reported a doubling of acoustic neuromas among people who had used a mobile phone for ten years or more.

The new study, part of the 13-country Interphone project, is based on the data collected in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the U.K. Last year, the German Interphone team also reported an increase in gliomas following more than ten years of mobile phone use. (See our report: "Is There a Ten-Year Latency for Cell Phone Tumor Development?")

The new five-country study included 1,521 glioma cases and 3,301 controls. There were 143 cases with ten or more years of mobile phone use. The earlier German study had only 12 cases who had used a cell phone for at least ten years.

Another research group, led by Lennart Hardell of Örebro University and Kjell Hansson Mild of the National Institute for Working Life, both in Sweden, have also found an increased risk of brain tumors and acoustic neuromas following ten years of cell phone use.

"The [new] study shows that the issue is not settled and that more data, preferably prospective data, are needed," Anders Ahlbom of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm told Microwave News.

Anssi Auvinen of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in Helsinki, a member of the Finnish Interphone study team offered a similar conclusion. "We need more research on long-term use," he stated in a press release issued today.

In fact, on Saturday, the London Times revealed that Lawrie Challis, the head of the U.K. research effort on mobile phones and health, known as MTHR, is in the final stages of negotiations for a study of 200,000 mobile phone users who will be monitored for cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The story appeared on the front page of the January 20th Times.

"We know from smoking and from the bomb falling in Hiroshima that nothing was seen for ten years," Challis told the BBC.

Ahlbom said that the planned study, disclosed by Challis, will be a joint effort of an international consortium consisting, at present, of epidemiologists from Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as the U.K.

The London Times ran a companion article under the headline: "Could These Be the Cigarettes of the 21st Century? ... 'Absolutely'." And in an editorial, the Times applauded the decision to carry out the new long-term study: "The precautionary principle still applies here. Manufacturers should welcome the new study."

At this writing, the cell phone industry had yet to issue any responses to these new developments. But Sheila Johnston, a consultant based in London with close ties to the mobile phone industry, circulated an e-mail this morning calling Challis's announcement a "very sad outcome."

January 19... Three senior members of the public health community —each with extensive experience with EMF health research— have called for precautionary policies to limit leukemia risks to children. At a public hearing convened by the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) on January 9, David Carpenter, Raymond Neutra and Daniel Wartenberg testified in support of prudent avoidance, as advocated by the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH). Read our special report on the Connecticut hearing, with extended excerpts from Carpenter, Neutra and Wartenberg's prepared testimony. (See also our previous coverage of Connecticut's efforts to establish a state EMF policy.)

January 18... The latest issue (Vol.25, No.4, 2006) of Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine features a selection of papers presented at the Conference on the Precautionary Approach to EMF, held in Benevento, Italy, last February. Among the authors are Martin Blank, Carl Blackman, Olle Johansson, Alvaro de Salles and Mikhail Zhadin and Livio Giuliani. Also included are the full texts of the 2002 Catania and 2006 Benevento Resolutions.

January 13... Today's New York Times has an obituary for Martin Kruskalz, a mathematician who taught at Princeton and Rutgers. He died on December 26. One of the principal reasons Kruskal merited a signed obit, with photo, is his work on solitons. The Times credits him and Norman Zabusky, his collaborator, with coining the term. (Solitons are solitary waves that can travel long distances without being dissipated; see, for example, this very short video.) The obit prompted a Proustian moment, taking us back to the days when Ross Adey (1922-2004) would speculate on possible mechanisms for the low-level EMF effects that he was seeing in his lab. He would often end his talks by suggesting that solitons might explain how energy could tunnel through the cell membrane and bring about biological changes. Those days are history: No one talks about solitons on the EMF circuit anymore. Instead, contractors are lining up to show why such effects are impossible.

January 12... Are they victims of mind-control dirty tricks or are they simply nuts? Sharon Weinberger presents the stories of a number of TIs —targeted individuals who believe they are being assaulted by electromagnetic weapons— in Sunday's (January 14) Washington Post magazine. Her cover story, "Mind Games", centers on Harlan Girard, who for many years has run the International Committee on Offensive Microwave Weapons out of his home in Philadelphia. Weinberger lets you decide whether Girard and the others are schizophrenic or the involuntary subjects of government experiments. It's a well-written piece and well worth the read.

January 11, 2007... Björn Nordenström died in Stockholm on December 31. Nordenström, a professor emeritus of diagnostic radiology at the Karolinska Institute, had been ill for some time. He is perhaps best known for developing new biopsy techniques for diagnosing lung cancer. Nordenström also used electricity to treat cancer. The latter research was quite controversial, at least partially because he worked alone and published few papers. in 1983, he summarized his ideas in Biologically Closed Electric Circuits and later helped establish the International Association of Biologically Closed Electric Circuits, The association held its last meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last May.