Science and Tech: Cell phone brain risk higher outside city

Subject: Science and Tech: Cell phone brain risk higher outside city



Cell phone brain risk higher outside city

Source: United Press International

OREBRO, Sweden (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Swedish
study has determined the risk of brain tumors among cell phone users
is much higher in rural areas than in cities.

Professor Lennart Hardell of the University Hospital in Orebro said
more than 1,400 adults aged between 20 and 80 living in the center of
Sweden and diagnosed with brain tumors between January 1997 and June
2000 were asked to complete questionnaires on their phone usage.

The study, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said
how long users spent on the phone had little impact on the probability
of being diagnosed with a brain tumor. However, residents of rural
areas who had been using a mobile digital phone for more than three
years, were over three times as likely to be diagnosed with a brain
tumor as those living in urban areas.

For malignant brain tumors, the risk was eight times higher for those
living in a rural area.

The authors said it was likely because base stations are much farther
apart in rural areas, the telephones generate a higher signal
intensity to compensate.