World's largest study on the safety of using mobile phones

Researchers in London recently launched the world's largest study on the safety of using mobile phones. A quarter of a million mobile phone users will be tracked through their medical records for more than 20 years. This is the largest study in the world on the health effects of using mobile phones and is being called Cosmos.

Network operators such as O2 and Vodafone in the UK are inviting a random selection of customers in the 18 to 69 age group to participate in the study. The study will look for increased risk rates for cancer, dementia, depression and sleep disorders amongst other conditions. It is not the first time that mobile communications are being studied.

In 2000, the government's mobile telecommunications health research programme or MTHR was set up after the Stewart inquiry into mobile phones and their effect on the users' health. The cohort study on mobile communications is the latest government funded programme.

Many cancers take 10 or 20 years to display symptoms

The last study had found that there was no evidence of mobile phones being dangerous, more research was needed to evaluate the risk of cancers and tumours over a long term. Children had been advised against using mobile phones unless absolutely necessary.

"The balance of scientific evidence to date does not suggest that mobile phones cause cancer but, because of the uncertainty, we cannot rule out the possibility that it might," said Professor Lawrie Challis, of the MTHR management committee. "With many cancers it takes 10 or 20 years for symptoms to show, and most of us have not had mobile phones that long. There just hasn't been enough time for cancer to develop."

The new study will have enough time to track the health of users in the following decades that it will be on. Other countries besides the UK participating in the study include Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The study is expected to follow at least 90 000 people over a period of 30 years.

The scientists led by Paul Elliott at Imperial College, London will gather and study the information. "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 usage and health problems over the long term," said Prof Elliott.

Perhaps at the end of the study we will look at the risks associated with mobile phones in a very different light.