HM International Blog

According to Dr. Khurana, since tumors take at least a decade to develop, the studies showing that very few people have had tumors due the use of cell phones are invalid and that using mobile phones for 10 years could double the risk of brain cancer. Dr. Khurana told The Independent newspaper of London, “This danger has far broader public-health ramifications than asbestos and smoking.” This assessment was based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, which is three times higher than people who smoke. Smoking kills some five million globally each year and far fewer people are exposed to the deadly effects of asbestos.

Dr. Khurana also told The Independent that handset radiations could heat the side of the head or potentially thermoelectrically interact with the brain, whereas Bluetooth devices and unshielded headsets could alter the handset user’s head into an effective, potentially self-harming antenna.

Dr. Khurana conducted a 15-month review of over 100 prior studies regarding the effects of mobile handsets and concluded that the use of cell phones should be avoided whenever possible. In addition, he called for governments and industry to take “immediate steps” to reduce radiation exposure through the mobile devices. He stated that “If industry and governments do not adopt immediate and decisive measures,” the rate of malignant brain tumors and the resulting mortality rate will grow at a global level within about ten years. But at that point it will be too late to intervene. He added, “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 tumor incidence rates.”

The French government has already warned against mobile phone use, especially by children. In addition, Germany and the European Environment Agency have advised their people to curtail their exposure to mobile handsets.

The study was the work of researchers based at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL), UK and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), University of Montpellier, France, and is published in the November issue of the The British Journal of Psychiatry which is available online.

In their background information the authors explained that much research on diet and depression tends to focus on individual nutrients so they thought they would look at links between overall dietary patterns and depression.

For the study they looked at data covering 3,486 participants of average age 57 years (nearly three quarters were men) who were part of the Whitehall II study.

The Whitehall II study was set up by co-author and UCL Professor Sir Michael Marmot to investigate links between disease and social class, psychosocial factors and life style. It began by looking at the health of working people, and is now also looking to answer questions about how previous and current circumstances affect health and quality of life in an ageing group of participants.

The data allowed the researchers to identify two dietary patters: a whole food diet and a processed food diet. The whole food diet comprised mainly fresh fruits and vegetables and fish, while the processed diet comprised mainly sweetened desserts, fried foods, high fat dairy foods, processed meat and refined grains.

To assess depression, the researchers used self-reported data that had been gathered five years after the dietary data using the CES-D scale.

CES-D, short for Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression scale, is a commonly used self-report questionnaire for assessing depression. It asks a series of multiple choice questions about how the participant has been feeling over the past week, covering topics such as concentration, loss of appetite, worry, how well they have been able to shake off depressive moods, quality of sleep, feelings of loneliness, self-worth, energy levels, and so on.