The former head of the World Health Organisation’s EMF project has sought to reassure mobile phone users that their use of the device is “not associated with an increased risk of cancer” ahead of the anticipated release of INTERPHONE later this month.

Professor Michael Repacholi, a visiting professor of electronic engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome and chairman emeritus of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, made the comments in leading science magazine New Scientist in December ahead of the long awaited publication of the INTERPHONE project results anticipated before year’s end.

“Given the public health implications, we can expect it to get a lot of media attention. But you should treat what you read and hear with caution. A decade ago, when the study was being set up, there were great expectations that it would produce a definitive answer. It is now clear that it cannot,” Prof Repacholi said in New Scientist.

Prof Repacholi’s article in New Scientist   

The INTERPHONE project is the largest case-control study investigating the risks related to mobile phone use and cancer.

Co-ordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, it comprises 16 studies in 13 countries that aim to determine whether mobile phone use is associated with tumours of the brain, ear nerve or salivary glands.

Prof Repacholi said: “The studies were designed to work out whether those with cancer had used their mobiles for longer or more intensively than the others… It is therefore likely that INTERPHONE will give cellphones a clean bill of health except for the small possibility of a risk of glioma or acoustic neuroma from intensive and long-term use, which requires further study before reaching any such conclusion.

“Unfortunately, it is also likely that the media will report this possible risk without any caveats, such as it probably being due to the limitations of the study, of which there are many.”

Prof Repacholi said it is important to recognise the impact these limitations had on the results of the INTERPHONE project.

“It is widely recognised that the design of INTERPHONE was the best available at the time. Even so, it has major flaws that cast doubt on its ability to identify any cancer risk from cellphone. Can you recall how much you used your cellphone five or 10 years ago? Of course not, and that is Interphone's biggest flaw.

“Recall bias is made more likely by the widespread dissemination of the hypothesis that INTERPHONE was set up to test – that cellphone use causes cancer. There is evidence that people with tumours overestimate their past use of a phone, perhaps because they ‘know’ that their tumour may have been caused by mobile phones.

“A similar bias is seen in subjects' recall of which side of the head they held their phone: those with tumours localised on one side tend to overestimate how much they used the phone on that side,” Prof Repacholi said.

“INTERPHONE's results must be seen in the light of what is already known about the effects of RF on cells. The vast majority of laboratory studies, when considered collectively, find no relationship between RF field exposure and any form of cancer. All rigorous reviews of all the scientific literature have concluded that exposure to RF fields is not associated with an increased risk of cancer.

“Nor has any mechanism been found by which RF exposure from mobile phones could cause cancer. RF fields do not have enough energy to break chemical bonds in DNA, so they simply cannot cause the mutations required to initiate cancer. Further, from a theoretical analysis of all possible ways that RF fields could act on cells and tissues, it does not seem possible for RF exposures at levels below the international limits to cause adverse health consequences,” Prof Repacholi said.