Mobile phone users warned of brain cancer risk

MOBILE phone users should take precautions to protect themselves from cancer risks and should not wait for a definitive study to be published, the head of a US cancer research institute said yesterday.

Dr Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, said his warning to thousands of members of staff was based on early, unpublished data, about the possible risk of brain cancer.

Children should only use mobiles in emergencies and adults should try to keep the phone away from their head, he said in an internal memo.