Swedish study suggests that the use of a mobile phone in rural areas seems to increase the risk of developing brain tumours than it does in urban areas.

Researchers from Orebro University, investigated the association between the use of cellular or cordless telephones and the risk for brain tumours in different geographical areas, urban and rural.

The study enrolled 1429 patients aged 20–80 years, living in the middle part of Sweden, and diagnosed with a malignant or benign brain tumour between 1 January 1997 and 30 June 2000.

The group were compared with a similar number of healthy adults, matched for age and sex, and living in the same geographical area.

Daily mobile and cordless phone use was assessed, via questionnaire, which included a complete employment history.

How long users spent on the phone had little impact on the probability of being diagnosed with a brain tumour. But where they lived did make a difference for all phone types, and especially for mobile digital phones.

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 tumour as those living in urban areas.

And digital mobile phone use for five years or more in a rural area quadrupled the risk compared with residency in urban areas.

For malignant brain tumours, the risk was eight times as high for those living in a rural area, but the numbers were small, caution the authors. No such effect was seen for analogue or cordless phones.

The authors reiterate that there is a difference in power output between mobile phones in urban and rural areas.
This is because base stations tend to be much further apart in rural areas, requiring a higher signal intensity to compensate.
The compensatory system, known as the adaptive power control or APC, is used for mobile phone ( GSM ) networks.

Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2005


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