U.K. Study: Cell Phones Pose No Risk Of Brain CancerU.K. Study: Cell Phones Pose No Risk Of Brain Cancer

A four-year study of brain cancer patients in the U.K. found there is no increased risk of the illness traceable to the use of mobile phones.

The study of 966 brain cancer patients was conducted by London's Institute of Cancer Research and three major British universities. The results were released Friday in a report in the British Medical Journal.

"There was no relationship for risk of glioma (brain cancer) and time since first use of a mobile phone, lifetime years of use and cumulative number of calls and hours of use," the report stated. "Early mobile phones were designed to use analog signals and emitted higher power than current digital phones, but the study showed no increased risk of glioma brain tumors with the use of analog phones."

Several persons in the U.S. have filed litigation against cell phone providers claiming the technology was responsible for causing brain cancer.

The U.K. study sought to counter an earlier Swedish study that claimed there was an increased risk of contracting brain cancer among rural cell phone users. Noting that cancers occurring on the same side of the head as phone use tended to be fully reported, the study said it was likely that over reporting occurred in those cases. "This results in under reporting use on the opposite side of the head," the U.K. researchers said.

The report noted that early mobile phones tended to use stronger analog signals than more recent ones.