Cellphones and cancer

Cellphones and cancer? Keep talking.

Links between brain tumors and cellphones have not been established, but new research suggests there might be a connection.

Rats developed cancer after being subjected to full-body radiation of the type that cellphones emit. This is the finding by the National Toxicology Project, or NTP, which was the lead agency in this two-year study.

After being exposed to radiation for nine hours a day for two years, about 3 percent of male rats developed cancerous tumors of the brain. No rats in the control group (who received no radiation) had tumors. About one percent of female rats developed a brain cancer.

But, surprisingly, the control group of rats died sooner than irradiated rats.

According to Scientific American, researcher Christopher Potier, who launched these studies while he was at the NTP, the study definitely showed causation between tumors and cellphones.

Salvatore Insinga, a neurosurgeon at Northwell Health’s Neuroscience Institute in Manhasset, NY, told CNN that the findings pointed to a need for more research. Insinga said there was not enough data to advise people to cut their cellphone use.

A second report is expected next year.