[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5880\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EThousands being interviewed in mobile phone brain cancer study\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBrain cancer is the most common type of cancer in children, after leukaemia. In the UK alone, some 450 children under the age of 18 are diagnosed with brain tumours every year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany people are tempted to blame the spiralling use of mobile phones. A study conducted at the beginning of this decade on behalf of the European Commission\u2019s Directorate-General for Health and Consumers found that more than two-thirds of people in the EU believe their health is affected to some extent by mobile phone masts and mobile phone handsets.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPrevious studies have not found any strong links between mobile phones and cancer, but according to Professor Elisabeth Cardis at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain, that may be because brain cancers are rare, and because heavy phone usage is a fairly recent phenomenon. \u2018The fact of not seeing a trend does not mean there is no risk,\u2019 she said. \u2018It means if there is a risk, perhaps you haven\u2019t had enough statistical power to be able to see it.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Cardis coordinates MOBI-KIDS, a study that aims to find out whether more data will uncover a link. Backed by the EU\u2019s FP7 funding programme, which runs from 2007 to 2013, the project is drawing on expertise from 16 European and non-European countries to discover if children who spend a lot of time on the phone are more likely to develop brain tumours.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext year, researchers will complete the first major stage of MOBI-KIDS, which has involved interviewing some 6 000 young people between 10 and 24 years of age. One-third of the people are those with brain tumours, while the remaining two-thirds are control cases: people who are the same age and sex as counterparts in the first group, but who have not been diagnosed with brain cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe interviews will explore the amount and the ways in which the subjects have used mobile phones. If mobile phones do increase the risk of brain cancer, then there ought to be marked differences between the two groups in terms of their past mobile phone usage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHeavy usage\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMOBI-KIDS is not the first study to investigate the effect of mobile phones on health. In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded there was \u2018limited\u2019 evidence that heavy usage \u2013 defined then as 30 minutes a day for 10 years \u2013 increased the risk of brain cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Cardis, who previously ran the IARC radiation programme, said the IARC report could not be conclusive because of ambiguities in the data. One problem was asking people to recollect whether they held their mobile phone on the same side of the head in which their tumour was located.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If you\u2019re asking people who have just been diagnosed with a brain tumour about their mobile phone use, they might have read in the press that mobile phones cause cancer,\u2019 said Prof. Cardis. \u2018So they might be more likely to say, \u201cAh, yes, I was using it on that side\u201d.\u2019\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018If there is a risk, perhaps you haven\u2019t had enough statistical power to be able to see it.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Elisabeth Cardis, coordinator of MOBI-KIDS \u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Cardis is hoping to avoid such \u2018recall bias\u2019 in MOBI-KIDS by asking less direct questions. \u2018For instance, we can ask instead: \u201cShow us how you use your mobile phone\u201d,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJonathan Samet, an epidemiologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, US, who is not involved in the project, calls children a \u2018key population\u2019 for which the risks of mobile phones should be investigated. \u2018The study will fill in a gap in research, which has largely focused on brain cancer in adults,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Cardis expects the first results from MOBI-KIDS to be ready by 2016. So what if the project gives strong evidence that mobile phones can cause brain cancer?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother FP7-backed project is looking at ways to greatly reduce public exposure to electromagnetic fields generated by mobile phones, base stations and other wireless technologies. Last year, 17 leading telecommunications operators, vendors, research centres and academic institutions grouped together to form LEXNET, which aims to cut electromagnetic-field exposure by 50 %.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the ways LEXNET will do this, according to project manager Joe Wiart, is by examining the sum of incoming and outgoing signals. Since it is the mobile phones and not the base stations that generate the most concentrated electromagnetic fields, it may be possible to reduce exposure by increasing the density of base stations, so that the mobile phones do not have to work so hard.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWiart expects LEXNET to finish in two years. \u2018The objective is to reduce the exposure without any impact on quality of service,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-2is7umerwacuku-zdttuwemu5gjpsgxirgyklmoebhs\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-2is7UmERWACuku_ZdTTUwEMU5GJpsGxIRGyKLmOEBhs\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]