[ RadSafe ] Brain-tumour cluster strikes university

[John Jacobus]

>From news at nature.com
Published online: 18 May 2006
(Just for your information)
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-14.html

Brain-tumour cluster strikes university
Coincidence, or the fault of cell-phone masts?
Carina Dennis

A Melbourne university has emptied the top floors of
one of its buildings after a spate of brain-tumour
cases were reported during the past month. Most
affected staff worked on the top floor, raising fears
that cell-phone masts on top of the building are
responsible. But experts say it is far more likely to
be an unfortunate coincidence.

Since mid-April, five staff from the business school
of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
University have reported developing brain tumours. Two
other cases have been reported since 1999. Of the
seven, two are malignant and five benign.

"We suspect there might be other cases, but these
haven't been confirmed," says National Tertiary
Education Union representative Matthew McGowan, who
adds that the union and the university have received
phone calls and e-mails from additional staff
reporting health concerns.

Five of the seven staff worked on the top floor, and
all except one have worked in the building for a
decade, mostly on the top level. Some staff are
concerned that mobile-phone-transmitter towers on top
of the building are to blame. 

"It is too much of a coincidence to simply be chance,"
says McGowan. The university has offered staff on the
two top floors alternative office space while it
carries out a two-week investigation.

No clear link

But international studies have been unable to provide
a convincing link between cancer and the use of mobile
phones or the proximity of mobile-phone towers. 

"There is no consistent evidence at present that
radiation frequency causes brain tumours. That's not
to say it's impossible, but it is not convincing,"
says Anthony Swerdlow, an epidemiologist at the
Institute of Cancer Research in London, and member of
a radiation advisory group with the United Kingdom's
National Radiological Protection Board. 

Preliminary results from the university's
investigation indicate that radiofrequency levels are
extremely low, according to an RMIT spokesperson. "Our
initial tests show no cause for alarm," he says. 

Although little is known of what causes brain tumours,
a bacterial or viral agent could be responsible. "That
is one of many possibilities," says Richard McNally, a
statistical epidemiologist at the University of
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. McNally previously reported
that brain-tumour occurrence in a region of the
Netherlands showed a pattern typical of diseases
caused by infection1. RMIT is also testing air- and
water-quality to investigate this possibility. 

Chance cluster

Many experts say it is most likely to be a
coincidental clustering of cases. "My strong hunch is
that it may well be a chance occurrence," says David
Hill, the Director of the Cancer Council of Victoria
in Australia.

McNally, who also think that this "may well be a
chance occurrence that has sprung to attention," says
the university should determine whether those affected
had other known risk factors, such as a genetic
predisposition or previous exposure to ionizing
radiation. Some of the affected staff did have
personal histories that may be linked to a higher
risk, according to the RMIT spokesperson.

The fact that the tumours are different from each
other may also make a common cause unlikely. "The
tumours detected have varying origins and only three
of the seven types have known associations with
radiation," says John Gall, of private-health company
Southern Medical Services, who has been appointed by
RMIT to investigate the epidemiology of the cluster.

The university is expected to release its report next
week.


References
Houben M. P., et al. Eur J Cancer., 41. 2917 - 2923
(2005).
 
 


+++++++++++++++++++
"You get a lot more authority when the workforce doesn't think it's amateur hour on the top floor."
GEN. MICHAEL V. HAYDEN, President Bush's nominee for C.I.A. director.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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