cell phone cancer : Study links cellphones to possible cancer risk

Cellphone users may be at increased risk for two types of rare tumors and should try to reduce their exposure to the energy emitted by the phones, according to a panel of 31 international scientists convened by an agency within the World Health Organization.

Studies so far do not show definitively that cellphone use increases that risk, said the authors of the consensus statement issued Tuesday by the WHO. But "limited" scientific evidence exists, they said, to suggest that the radiofrequency energy released by cellphones may increase the risk of glioma, a type of brain cancer, and acoustic neuroma, a noncancerous tumor of the nerve that runs from the ear to the brain.

Other scientists said they remained skeptical of the link, which is mired in contradictory science, and that they found the decision by the WHO perplexing.

"I find the conclusions surprising given that there is increasingly strong evidence that cellphone use has no association with brain cancer occurrence," said David A. Savitz, a professor in the departments of epidemiology and obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University and a researcher on environmental exposures and health. "With few exceptions, the studies directly addressing the issue indicate the lack of association."

Cellphone use was categorized as possibly carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which develops scientific cancer-prevention strategies for the WHO. The agency's other four categories for the various risk factors analyzed are: carcinogenic to humans, probably carcinogenic to humans, not classifiable, and probably not carcinogenic to humans.