Safe for mobile users to listen up?

Heavy mobile phone users can now heave a sigh of relief. A new study has confirmed that the risk of brain tumor does not increase with mobile phone use, according to the U.K. Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).

Conducted over a four-year research period by the ICR and three other U.K. universities, the study says there is no link between regular, long-term use of mobile phones and glioma, the most common type of brain tumor. There are over 4,000 new cases of brain tumors per year, according to the ICR.

The study polled people living across various states in the United Kingdom, including 966 with glioma brain tumors, who were interviewed about their mobile phone usage such as the number and duration of the calls and mobile of their phones.

The study however, has "limited numbers" for estimating the risk of using a phone over a long period since widespread use of mobile phones did not begin until late 1990s in the United Kingdom, according to a statement released by the ICR.

The institute added that while early mobile phone models used analog signals, emitting higher power than those used today, the study found no increased risk of glioma brain tumors with the use of analog phones.

As the use of mobile phones increased globally over the last decade or so, so did the debate over the potential ill effects of radiation from the mobile devices, but there has been no concrete evidence to prove these fears are well-founded. The U.K. government in 2002 had initiated a US$6.3 million program in an attempt to prove, or disprove, that mobile phone use is hazardous to health.