Mobile phone use does not raise the risk of cancer, at least in the first 10 years of use, the largest investigation to date shows. The latest Institute of Cancer Research work includes data from five European countries and more than 4,000 people.
There are more than one billion mobile phone users worldwide. Longer follow-up is needed to check that health problems do not arise with many more years of use, the researchers say in the British Journal of Cancer.
An independent group for the UK government, led by Sir William Stewart, that looked into the safety of mobile phones in the late 1990s also concluded mobile phones did not appear to harm health.
However, the group said there was evidence that radiation from mobile phones could potentially cause adverse health effects, and therefore a "precautionary approach" to their use should be adopted. The government currently advises mobile phone users to keep their call times short.
And children under the age of 16 should use mobile phones for essential calls only, because their head and nervous systems may still be developing.
Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study provides further evidence that using mobile phones does not increase the risk of brain tumours. However, it is important that researchers continue to monitor phone users over the coming years as mobiles are still a relatively new invention."
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