Healthcare Technology and News: Mobile Phones Pose Long-term Health Risks? Decades-long Study Says So

In my good old Italian family, I’m always being warned about some new philosophy on how something or other is going to give me cancer. “Don’t drink Diet Coke, you’ll get cancer,” my one aunt told me a few months ago. I mean, come on now. 

My favorite is the “You talk on your cell too much Kelly, it’s going to give you a brain tumor!” Well, turns out, my crazy Italian aunt may have been on to something; albeit not exactly a tumor, but still, in the realm of truth.

Reports have now surfaced releasing a decades-long study that connects the use of mobile phones and long-term health problems such as cancer and neurological diseases.

The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications, or “COSMOS,” examines over 250,000 between 18 to 69 in Britain, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, and the overall health risks us cell phone junkies potentially face.

While previous studies have investigated this research before, there has yet to be a study conducted over decades of time. And, seeing as how many cancers take longer to develop, not ot mention the rise of mobile phones is a pretty new trend, Principal Investigator at the Imperial College London, Professor Paul Elliot, said the longer survey was a necessity.

“Research to date has necessarily mainly focused on [mobile phone] use on the short term, less than 10 years,” Elliot said at a press event. “The COSMOS study will be looking at long-term use, 10, 20 or 30 years. And with long-term monitoring there will be time for diseases to develop.”

While Elliot and his college claim this is in fact a real problem, groups such as the World Health Organization, the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health, have all concluded that scientific evidence to date does not support any adverse health effects associated with the use of cell phones.

However, could that be attributed to the lack of longer case studies?

The study will work with mobile operators to examine a participant's mobile phone use whether making calls, sending texts and downloading data. It will also look at how users carry their phone, such as in a trouser or chest pocket and whether they use hand-free kits and any potential health risks and connections with this behavioral patterns.

Guess I should have listened to my aunt after all. Who knew.