Why your mobile should carry a health warning like cigarette packets because of brain cancer risk

Mobile phones should carry a health warning like those on cigarette packets, scientists have warned.

The authorities must not make the same mistakes over possible links between mobile phones and brain cancer as they did with cigarettes and lung cancer, experts warned a powerful U.S. congressional committee.

It took 50 years to get the tobacco industry to acknowledge the risks, and 70 years to remove lead from paint and petrol, they said.

‘Society must not repeat the situation we had with smoking and lung cancer, where we waited until every ‘i’ was dotted and ‘t’ was crossed before warnings were issued,’ said Professor David Carpenter, director of the institute of health and environment at the University of Albany.
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‘Precaution is warranted even in the absence of absolutely final evidence concerning the magnitude of the risk – especially for children.’

Dr Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute – one of the top U.S. cancer research centres – agreed and said: ‘We must learn from our past to do a better job of interpreting evidence of potential risk.’

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