Major study launched into health risk of mobile phones

A major new international study lasting for at least two decades is to build up a “valuable picture” of whether mobile phones can cause long-term illness.

In the largest research programme conducted worldwide into mobile phone use, the Cohort Study on Mobile Communications is following the health of at least 250,000 people between the ages of 18 and 69 years across five European countries.

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.

Though the use of mobile phones has not been linked with health problems in the short term, it is believed that some diseases take many years to develop.

Dr Mireille Toledano, co-principal investigator of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, believes a long-term study is key to understanding the health risks in mobile phones.

She said it is important to establish “if there are any possible health effects from this new and widespread technology that has become so central to our everyday lives”.