Mobile cancer scare 'all in the mind', says Aussie expert

Melbourne, Nov 23 (ANI): A top Australian expert has declared the use of mobile to be 'very safe'.

Professor Rodney Croft, executive director of The Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR) and Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Wollongong says doubts about the location of mobile phone base stations should melt away with time.

"There really isn't a great deal of difference between your basic FM radio antenna and your base station's antennas," News.com.au quoted Prof Croft, as saying.

"Radio transmissions have been around for a long, long time and people don't seem to mind being exposed to that," Croft added.

According to him, humans have "a tendency to be suspicious of all new things".

He said: "When microwave ovens first came out there was a great deal of suspicion about them, when mains power came out there was a great deal of suspicion about it.

"People do move on . . . providing, of course, no science comes out showing it is more dangerous. And certainly the centre's view is that's not likely to happen."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is soon to release its Interphone study, a decade-long investigation into the health implications of mobile phone use.

The report could be released before the year's end, and there is speculation it will draw a definitive link between long-term mobile phone use and an increased risk of brain tumours.

Commenting on the World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the health implication of using cell phones, which is expected to be released soon, Prof Croft says that the body is likely to ignore a lot of research according to which linking mobile phone use and cancer is "clearly not correct".

He added: "But it will still leave open the possibility that long-term effects have not been looked at adequately, and may turn out to be a problem.

"It all seems to be pointing to the same thing... that there is not a problem (with mobile phone use).

"Our perspective is that we don't see any science indicating a health effect. It really looks very safe." (ANI)