[LINK] Rift delays release of study on safety of cellphones

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/29/business/mobile30.php
link

> By Doreen Carvajal
> Published: June 29, 2008
>
> PARIS: For 10 years, scientists have been waiting for the outcome of  
> a global examination of the habits of thousands of brain cancer  
> patients to explore whether there are links between cellphone use  
> and brain tumors.
>
> But now the findings of the €15 million, or $24 million, Interphone  
> study are stalled, caught in an international rift among prominent  
> cancer researchers who are divided about how to interpret the risks  
> of radio-frequency radiation emitted by mobile telephones.
>
> The research group's manuscript of results has drifted for almost  
> three years among scientists in Europe, Israel, Japan and Canada  
> without publication. Some of the researchers are barely on speaking  
> terms, according to some participants. And there is the prospect of  
> further delays because of an ongoing general debate about whether or  
> not cancer patients accurately report their mobile telephone use.
>
> "There seems to be a split," said Lennart Hardell, a participating  
> Swedish cancer specialist who said the divisions focused on whether  
> the faulty memories of brain cancer patients skewed the results of  
> the study. "It's not fair to the public. This has been paid for by  
> taxpayers and they have a responsibility to show the results."
>
> Many of the individual countries involved in the study have already  
> started to release results, some of which have shown increased risk  
> of brain tumors for heavy users - those who have used their  
> cellphones for more than 10 years on the same side of the head. But  
> since national samples are small, the information is not considered  
> as significant as the pooled analysis of the 7,400 patients in the  
> study with tumors in the head and neck area in the study.
>
> Until the Interphone study is published, institutions like the World  
> Health Organization and the European Commission have cautioned that  
> conclusions about possible cancer risks cannot be drawn. But others,  
> in the meantime, are defining the risks - from a hoax video clip  
> that circulated millions of times on YouTube this month showing four  
> ringing mobile telephones popping kernels of corn, to a manifesto  
> issued by French scientists in the same period urging cellphone  
> users to take precautions with hands-free kits.


> The GSM Association, a global trade organization of mobile  
> operators, and the forum, which includes Nokia and about a dozen  
> other manufacturers, contributed more than €3.5 million to help  
> finance the project. The European Commission also helped fund the  
> project with contributions passed through the International Union  
> Against Cancer to create a barrier between the mobile phone industry  
> and scientists.



--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961