Causal link between extensive mobile phone use and brain tumours – Italy’s Supreme Court

Italy’s Supreme Court concluded in October that there is a causal link between extensive mobile phone use and brain tumours after hearing evidence from two doctors, oncologist Angelo Gino Levis and neurosurgeon Giuseppe Grasso.

WHO has classified mobile phone technology as a class B carcinogen and urges its restricted use, especially among children

They testified on behalf of businessman Innocente Marcolini, who developed a tumour after using a mobile phone for up to six hours every day for 12 years. The doctors said, in their testaments, that mobile and cordless phones damage cells, making tumours more likely. All children and adults who use mobiles extensively are at risk.

Marcolini, 60, developed a tumour close to the area where he consistently held the phone. Although the tumour was benign, it threatened his life because it had spread to the carotid artery, which carries blood to the brain. The left side of his face has been paralysed and he takes morphine regularly to ease the pain.

The World Health Orgnisation has classified mobile phone technology as a class B carcinogen and urges its restricted use, especially among children.

Following the hearing, Prof. Levis said: “the court decision finally officially recognises a link. It will open, not a road, but a motorway to legal actions by victims.”

The court ruling remains controversial as some scientists maintain that a link between mobile technology and cancer has not been established. However, most of the studies were funded by the mobile phone industry.

• Moving on to possible stroke risks, new research has found that women who take just one sugary soft drink per day increase their risk of a stroke by 83 per cent. Drinks, including sugar sweetened fizzy drinks and juices, but not diet fizzy drinks or 100 per cent fruit juices, appear to affect women far more than men. For men, the risk of stroke increases only slightly even if they also drink one soft drink every day.

The effect also seems to happen over a long period of time. Researchers from Osaka University in Japan made the discovery after they tracked the lifestyles and diets of around 40,000 men and women for 18 years.

Compared with women who never drank soft drinks, those who drank just one per day had an increased risk of an ischaemic stroke of 83 per cent (Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 2012).

• Many people ask for clarification of the use of flaxseed in their diets. Researchers from University Hospital in Holguin City, Cuba, say one of the best benefits is that by adding flaxseed to your diet, you can reduce risk of stroke by 50 per cent and heart attack risk by 30 per cent. Researchers also say that flaxseed has had the most dramatic effect of any food they have investigated so far for reducing blood pressure.

The tests were carried out on 110 people, most of whom were taking an anti-hypertensive drug for raised blood pressure and all of whom had peripheral arterial disease. They were matched against a control group and after six months the flaxseed group saw large falls in their blood pressure readings of around 10mmHg in their systolic pressure and 7 mmHg in their diastolic levels.

As a result, these reductions could lead to a drop of around 50 per cent in cases of stroke and 30 per cent in heart attack rates (American Heart Association, 2012).

• We have heard how important broccoli are in our diet. However, recent research has looked at compounds from crucifer-ous vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts and shown that they can combat even the most aggressive types of breast cancer.

An ingredient called diindolylmethane (DIM), found in these vegetables, is the active ingredient that can beat even triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive type affecting around 20 per cent of all cancer victims.

Scientists from Florida and Texas A&M Universities say a new compound made up of DIM is more effective and less debilitating than the current conventional treatments available, such as chemotherapy.

The announcement made at a major pharmaceutical conference added they were confident the new compound represented an effective and safe alternative. The fact that it can combat triple negative breast cancer is especially impressive, as this type grows faster and spreads to other parts of the body earlier.

It is also more difficult to detect by screening, which invariably fails to spot the fast-growing tumours.

kathryn@maltanet.net