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Mobile phone use not associated with melanoma of eye

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-14 15:36

WASHINGTON -- Mobile phone use is not associated with the risk of melanoma of the eye, researchers reported Tuesday.

A man uses his mobile phone at Beijing's Wangfujing Street January 7, 2009.[Agencies]

Although there is no direct link between exposure to radio waves and DNA damage, which can lead to cancer, studies have examined the possibility of an association between mobile phone use and melanoma of the eye, also called uveal melanoma, the online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Instituten quoted the researchers as saying.

Andreas Stang, M.D., of the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, and his colleagues examined the association between phone use and risk of uveal melanoma in 459 patients and 1,194 control subjects. Control subjects were drawn from the general population, including those from ophthalmology clinics and from siblings of the patients. The investigators grouped study participants according to the amount of time spent on the phone, as never users, sporadic users and regular users.

There was no statistically significant association between mobile phone use of up to about 10 years and uveal melanoma risk, the report added.

"In conclusion, we observed no overall increased risk of uveal melanoma among regular mobile phone users or users of radio sets in Germany, where digital mobile phone technology was introduced in the early 1990s," the authors wrote.