Wireless devices could raise risk of brain cancer: World Health Organization
Posted May 31, 2011 1:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The cancer agency of the World Health Organization says using cell phones and other wireless devices may put people at greater risk of brain cancer, but more study is needed to be certain.
The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer studied whether exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, emitted by wireless devices, could cause cancer.
The agency classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on a higher risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer.
Other substances in the same category include pesticides and gasoline engine exhaust.
The findings are based on data from case studies in multiple countries.
The chair of the working group, Dr. Jonathan Samet of the University of Southern California, says it’s too soon to draw conclusive links between cancer and wireless devices.
“We still have much to learn about how these fields interact with biological material,” he said. “We have to leave open the possibility that there are things for us to learn.”
The agency says an estimated five billion people around the world use cell phones.
A public-relations firm working on behalf of Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless handheld device, was not immediately available for comment.
Canadian members of the cancer agency’s working group include Jack Siemiatycki of the Universite de Montreal and James McNamee of Health Canada.
The agency has published more than 100 papers since 1970 on the cancer-causing properties of asbestos, X-rays and the human papillomavirus, among others.
