Just when you thought it was safe to use a cell phone, the controversy over the healthy use of handsets re-emerges. This time a new study from Sweden claims that mobile phones may pose more of a health risk for rural users than for those in urban areas. Professor Lennart Hardell of University Hospital in Orebro and his colleagues studied 1,429 people with malignant and benign brain tumors, and 1,470 healthy controls living in the middle of Sweden.
The scientists found that rural dwellers who used mobile phones for more than three years were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a brain tumor than city dwellers. The risk quadrupled after more than five years of use. The researchers stressed that the study was small and the findings need to be duplicated on a larger scale to be sure. This latest report could create another outcry from some consumer groups against the safety of wireless technology.
For more on the latest heath controversy surrounding wireless:
- see this article from the Daily Mail