July 26, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1429

NEW YORK: The head of a leading cancer research institute has reignited the controversy over the health risks of using mobile phones by sending a warning to staff that they should limit the use of the devices because of the risk of cancer.

Dr Ronald Herberman’s alert to 3,000 staff at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute is believed to be the first of its kind from the director of a leading research centre. His call for action stands in contrast to the existing advice from many health authorities, which have pointed out that evidence of the dangers of mobile phone use is inconclusive.

In a memo posted to staff, Herberman admits that the evidence is still controversial and no hard conclusions can be reached, but he says he has become convinced that there is sufficient information “to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cellphone use”. He has had his memo peer-reviewed by an international panel of more than 20 experts from countries including America, Canada and France.

He is likely to arouse considerable interest in his warning by adding that he bases it partly on “early unpublished data” from ongoing research projects. It is thought that may refer to new findings from a monitoring project across 13 countries, known as Interphone.

Herberman advises a 10-point programme to reduce the risks of using the devices, which he calls “precautionary”.

Top of his list of advised precautions is that children should use mobiles only for emergencies in recognition of the fact that their growing brain tissue is likely to be more sensitive to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by them. That is in tune with advice already given by several European countries and Canada.

The list goes further than most existing advice by advocating steps that include:

Avoid using mobile phones in public places such as buses as you might passively expose your neighbours to radiation;

Do not keep phones near your body at night, such as under the pillow;

- Restrict calls to just a few minutes to avoid accumulation of exposure;

- Try not to use a phone where the signal is weak or when moving at speed, say in a car or train, as this raises the power of the device as it seeks to find a connection;

Use hands-free devices and if forced to hold a phone to the head switch sides while talking to avoid concentration on one part of the brain.

Herberman’s decision to go beyond current medical orthodoxy prompted a sceptical reaction from some colleagues. Professor Will Stewart of Southampton University, England, an expert on optoelectronics, said: “One cannot refute the ‘early findings from unpublished data’ since we have not seen them. But there is enough published data to make the advice sound alarmist.”

The Wireless Association, representing the mobile phone industry in the US, said research “published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk”.

The largest study published so far tracked 420,000 phone users in Denmark, thousands of whom had used the devices for more than 10 years. It found no increased risk of cancer.

—Dawn/ The Guardian News Service