In a recent study, the researchers tried to probe the relationship lying between mobile phone use and ‘malignant and non malignant parotid gland‘, also known as the ‘salivary gland’, tumors.

The study was carried out by Dr Siegal Sadetzki and colleagues from the ‘Chaim Sheba Medical Centre’; the Sackler School of Medicine at ‘Tel Aviv University’ in Israel and the ‘International Agency for Research on Cancer’ in Lyon, France. It was funded by the ‘European Commission Fifth Framework Program’, the ‘Union Internationale Contre le Cancer’, and a grant from the ‘Israel Cancer Association’.

In the study, a group of Jewish adults suffering from benign or cancerous parotid gland tumors (PGTs, which are tumors in the largest of the salivary glands) was compared to another group of Israeli adults, randomly selected from the ‘National Population Registry‘. They tried to derive the results on the basis of seven parameters which were matched to each of the adults with PGTs. The participants were interviewed on mobile phone usage, other possible risk factors and demographic variables.

They were classified into ‘regular users’, who had made or received more than one call per week for at least six months and ‘non-regular users’. The regular users produced 10-year history of mobile phone usage where they provided information about the mobile phones they had owned, when they started and stopped using them, the number of calls they made and received, call duration, etc. The researchers found that those who developed cancer were significantly more likely to be smokers. Mobile use seems to have no effect on whether the tumor was malignant or not.

One of the significant findings of the research was that greater number of regular mobile phone users had tumors on the same side of the head they held the phone to than those with a tumor on the opposite side, or who had tumors on both sides or used the phone equally on both sides. However these results could not be called statistically significant. This association could only be seen when they analyzed the regular users.

This study has various shortcomings from the point of view of design and the way the findings were analyzed. The subgroups which participated were too small in size so results could not be called reliable. There are very low instances reported of developing a salivary gland mouth tumor and the data goes lower when we see these numbers in context of cancerous tumor. So, in absence of agreeing and clear proof, more research is needed before the risks associated with mobile phone use, if any, are identified.

The researchers did not find a link between mobile phone use and tumors. The subgroup analyses where they assessed that there are chances of developing tumor on the side of the head where mobile is more frequently used could be held significant for non malignant tumors.

It is worth noting that cigarette smoking was significantly more common among the cases. Moreover the data compiled on the past use of mobile phones (up to 10 years before their diagnosis or study entry) is unlikely to be reliable as it is not easy to remember the use over such a long time period. Moreover there may be systematic differences in the way that cases and controls remember their usage history.

Though the researchers claim that these findings suggest a link between the mobile phone usage and the risk of PGTs, they recommend a “cautionary approach” in the face of conflicting and unclear evidence.

This article is the property of http://www.coolhealthtips.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed