Link between mobile phones and illness subject of major study
The study will last for at least two decades
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Thursday, 22, Apr 2010 05:07
By Emer Martin.
A study involving more than half a million people for at least two decades will build up a "valuable picture" of whether mobile phones can cause long-term illness, it was announced today.
In the largest study worldwide into mobile phone use, the cohort study on mobile communications (Cosmos) is following the health of at least 250,000 people between the ages of 18 and 69 years across five European countries.
The research is being led by a team from Imperial College London, which constitutes the UK arm of Cosmos, and has been launched today.
Short term use of mobile phones has not flagged up links between health problems and mobile use other than the well known associations with risk of accidents on the road. But it is believed that some diseases take many years to develop and so far few people have been using their mobile phones for that period of time.
Dr Mireille Toledano, co-principal investigator of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, thinks a long term study is key to understanding health risks in mobile phones.
She said: "For the benefit of current users and for future generations, it is important for us to carry out long-term health monitoring of a large group of mobile phone users so that we can identify if there are any possible health effects from this new and widespread technology that has become so central to our everyday lives."
Professor Paul Elliott, principal investigator of the study said: "Cosmos aims to fill in important gaps in our knowledge of mobile phones and health.
"By looking at large numbers of people across Europe over a long period of time, we should be able to build up a valuable picture of whether or not there is any link between mobile phone use and health problems over the long term."
Participants have been asked to complete online questionnaires about their mobile phone use, health and lifestyle. The researchers plan to assess whether cancers and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease develop and why. They will also analyse whether any changes in the frequency of symptoms, such as headaches and sleep disorders, are related to mobile phone usage.
"Over the past decade, mobile phones have become a normal part of everyday life for the majority of people in Britain.
"The Cosmos study is the largest research study worldwide investigating mobile phone use and health and is a very important step towards finding out whether there are health implications of using a mobile phone over a long period of time," said Dr Toledano.