Hungarian President Ferenc Madl chats on a phone with his Slovak counterpart during a presidential meeting of the central European Visegrad Group at the Castolovice Castle (130km east from Prague) on August 22, 2002, as the Slovak President stayed at home, suffering of sun stroke. Presidents of Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary met to coordinate efforts to join the European Union and pledge support to the flood-stricken Czech Republic. PHOTO – REUTERS

STOCKHOLM – Long-term users of some first generation mobile phones face an up to 80 percent greater risk of developing brain tumours than those who did not use the phones, a new Swedish study shows. The study, published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, looked at 1,617 Swedish patients diagnosed with brain tumours between 1997 and 2000, comparing them with a similar control group without brain tumours.

Researchers found that those who had used Nordic Mobile Telephone, or NMT, handsets had a 30 percent higher risk of developing brain tumours than people who had not used that type of mobile, particularly on the side of the brain used during calls. For people using the phones for more than 10 years the risk was 80 percent greater.

„Our present study showed an increased risk for brain tumours among users of analogue cellular telephones. For digital cellular phones and cordless phones the results showed no increased risk overall within a five-year latency period,“ the study said.

Two major mobile phone manufacturers, however, disputed the findings of an increased risk of cancer.

The world‘s biggest mobile producer, Finland‘s Nokia Oyj, which still produces two models of phones working in the NMT standard, said scores of other studies conducted on the health effects of mobile phones showed no evidence of health hazards for users.

The NMT network was initially developed to serve the Nordic countries, starting operations in the early 1980s, but then became popular in Russia and the Baltic countries. It is still used in more than 40 countries, but has been overtaken in several countries by the Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, which is due to be gradually replaced by rapid third-generation mobile networks.

Analogue NMT phones have been in operation for 20 years, making it possible to study the longer-term impact of microwave exposure to their users, but researcher Kjell Hansson Mild said it was too early to draw conclusions on the currently widely used digital GSM mobiles. It is said that the old handsets and the new GSM mobile phones both adhere to European Union limits on the amount of energy absorbed by the human body.

HELSINKI – Lost your cat or dog? No need to whistle or call on a fruitless search — just track your pet with your mobile phone. A Finnish firm says „wanted“ posters of lost pets will be a thing of the past thanks to new technology: a mobile phone and a tracking unit that is strapped on the back of the animal. When the pet goes missing its movements are followed via an electronic map displayed on a handheld monitor by the owner. The device is also expected to be popular among hunters needing to trace their dogs searching for game, said Matti Koskelo, sales manager at Pointer Solutions, one of the firms marketing the system.

Reuters