Mobile phone tumour link is tenuous, says Motorola

Never mind the mobiles, what about cigarette smoking? asks mobile phone giant

Motorola has been accused of trying to hide side-effects of mobile phones from the public since last year. The phone giant wanted to cover up evidence that mobiles increased the risk of tumours, according to today's Daily Express newspaper. Professor Ross Adey claims he was commissioned by Motorola to carry out experiments on animals between 1993 and 1996. He told the newspaper how Motorola withdrew its funding of his study when the results showed mobiles affected the incidence of brain tumours in rats. "The animal experiments were conducted very strictly and in the case of digital phones we found an effect on the number of brain tumours in rats," he said. "It became clear that Motorola preferred we found nothing." Professor Adey, a former senior advisor to NASA, said the funding was suddenly withdrawn in November last year. He claimed he had not been paid for writing up the experiments in recent months. He said big companies were not interested in the true health risks. "All they [the industry] wants is research to support their claims," said Adey, who works at the University of California. Motorola UK communications and public affairs manager Mark Durrant denied the company had pulled funding from Adey's research because it did not like the findings. "Motorola would not try to influence research if it found mobiles damaged health," he told The Register. "Our interests are in making sure mobiles are not damaging to health. We are committed to scientific research." Durrant said no studies had proven that mobiles increased the risk of cancer. He described the link between the two as "tenuous", saying people should worry more about known health dangers like smoking. ®