At last week's Congressional hearing on cell phone cancer risks, Dr. Ronald Herberman testified that the incidence of brain cancer has been increasing over the last ten years, particularly among 20-29 year-olds. This could have major implications for the cell phone health controversy.

Read our coverage of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's hearing at: http://www.microwavenews.com/kucinich.html

Louis Slesin, PhD
Editor, Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
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September 30, 2008

Are Brain Cancer Rates Rising Among Young Adults?

Striking Increase Cited at Congressional Hearing

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In many ways, last Thursday's Congressional hearing on cell phone cancer risks, called by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), brought few surprises. David Carpenter and Ronald Herberman made the case for precaution, especially for children, while National Cancer Institute's Robert Hoover countered that he is not persuaded that there's anything to worry about.

One piece of compelling news did emerge, however —though it never made it into the mainstream press: Brain cancer appears to be on the rise among young adults. Herberman testified that, on looking at government statistics, he was "struck" by the fact that the incidence of brain cancer has been increasing over the last ten years, particularly among 20-29 year-olds. If the latency for brain tumors is more than ten years and cell phone are in fact responsible for the increase, cancer rates might not peak for at least another five years, according to Herberman.

Herberman's analysis stands in sharp contrast to Hoover's assessment of the same data. Government statistics show no increase from 1987 to 2005, Hoover said at the hearing. If Herberman is right, he would puncture a central, albeit indirect, argument in favor of the safety of cell phone. The NCI, among others, argues that brain cancer rates are stable, and therefore that cell phones are not doing any harm. "Thus far, brain cancer incidence trends in the U.S. are unrelated to patterns of cell phone use," Hoover told Kucinich. In response to Herberman, Hoover offered to provide the subcommittee with the most recent government cancer statistics.

Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and his colleague Devra Davis have prepared a paper on their interpretation of the cancer data. "We're submitting it for publication," Davis told Microwave News. "We're looking at increasing trends in brain tumors among those under the age of 39, between 1995 and 2005," she said.

An uptick in brain cancer among 20-29 year-olds would also add weight to the findings of Sweden's Lennart Hardell. At a conference held in London earlier this month, Hardell reported that those who started using cell phones before the age of 20 were five times more likely to develop a glioma, a type of brain tumor. The U.K. press had a field day. The Independent warned of a looming brain cancer "epidemic" while the Telegraph reported that the country was facing a "health time bomb."

In their prepared statements, both Carpenter and Herberman cited Hardell's new finding. "This observation is consistent with a large body of scientific studies that demonstrate that children are more vulnerable than adults to carcinogens," Carpenter said. When Kucinich asked what should be done, Carpenter replied that "the evidence is certainly strong enough for warnings that children should not use cell phones." He warned that, "The failure to take [strong preventive action] will lead to an epidemic of brain cancer." Carpenter is the director of the Institute for Health and Environment in Albany, NY.

Herberman criticized the NCI and Hoover for failing to cite the Hardell studies. He called this omission in the NCI Cancer Bulletin, released just before the hearing, a "major lapse" (see September 23).

"Certainly Dr. Hardell's studies have made important contributions," Hoover said. But he then went on to assert that Hardell had left out many cases of brain tumors in his early studies. "To Dr. Hardell's credit, he attempted to do something very fast, [but] he used a method…that effectively ended up eliminating everybody who died quickly." As a result, Hoover said, Hardell's first study included "less than 30% of the total number of cases."

When asked about this, Hardell told Microwave News that he does not know where the 30% figure comes from. "It is not correct," he said. "We have published all the numbers in different papers."

Hardell first published his finding that the young have higher brain tumor risks from cell phones back in 2004. Writing in the Archives of Environmental Health, he <A