Study links mobile usage to increased risk of acoustic neuroma

Sweden’s Karolinska Institute says that prolonged exposure to mobile phones can increase the risk of developing acoustic neuroma, a benign tumour on the auditory nerve. In a study published yesterday, the Institute concluded that the risk was evident only in cases where someone had used a phone for more than ten years, and that the risk was limited to the side of the head where the phone was usually held. Moreover, it added that there were no indications of increased risk for those using a phone for less than ten years. However, the Karolinska Institute went on to point out that its report was carried out in a time when only analogue phones had been around for ten or more years, and that it could not safely extrapolate its findings to encompass the negative health effects or otherwise of GSM technologies. The mobile phone industry has long argued that there is no scientific evidence to support claims that mobiles are detrimental to health.