Dr. Vini G. Khurana, a Staff Specialist Neurosurgeon for The
Canberra Hospital in Australia, reviewed the findings of over
100 recent epidemiological and laboratory studies on mobile phone
use and the likelihood of increased risk of developing a brain
tumour risk. He found the evidence overwhelming.
The following are the key messages of his paper:
Mobile phones are convenient and frequently
invaluable, yet exposure to their electromagnetic radiation
is invisible. Therefore, any danger this exposure poses may
be easily dismissed
Exposure is long-term and its effects
on the body, particularly its electrical organ, the brain, are
compounded by numerous other simultaneous long-term exposures
including continuous waves from radio and TV transmitter towers,
cordless phone base stations, power lines,
and wireless/WiFi computing devices
A malignant brain tumour represents a
life-ending diagnosis in the vast majority of those diagnosed.
There is a significant and increasing body of evidence, to date
at least 8 comprehensive clinical studies internationally and
one long-term meta-analysis, for a link between mobile phone
usage and certain brain tumours
Taken together, the data presented below
compellingly suggest that the link between mobile phones and
brain tumours should no longer be regarded as a myth. Individual
and class action lawsuits have been filed in the USA, and at
least one has already been successfully prosecuted, regarding
the cell phone-brain tumour link
The “incubation time” or
“latency” (i.e. the time from commencement of regular
mobile phone usage to the diagnosis of a malignant solid brain
tumour in a susceptible individual) may be in the order of 10-20
years. In the years 2008-2012, we will have reached the appropriate
length of follow-up time to begin to definitively observe the
impact of this global technology on brain tumour incidence rates
There is currently enough evidence and
technology available to warrant Industry and Governments alike
in taking immediate steps to reduce exposure of consumers to
mobile phone-related electromagnetic radiation and to make consumers
clearly aware of potential dangers and how to use this technology
sensibly and safely
It is anticipated that this danger has
far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking,
and directly concerns all of us, particularly the younger generation,
including very young children
The case is made extremely well that,
regardless of the fact that there is about a 50%/50% split of
positive and negative studies in the recent literature, the
justification for the increase in brain tumour risk being genuine
is very compelling, and the conclusions are very hard hitting:
“...unless the Industry and Governments take immediate
and decisive steps to openly acknowledge and intervene in this
situation, even while waiting definitive confirmation by large
and well-constructed multi-centre studies worldwide, malignant
brain tumour incidence and its associated death rate will be
observed globally to rise within a decade from now, by which
time it may be far too late to meaningfully intervene, especially
for those who are currently children and young adults.”
