LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the Associated Press, a Danish study of more than 350,000 people concluded there was no difference in cancer rates between people who had used a cell phone for 10 years than those who did not.

A separate large study had previously found no clear connection between cell phones and cancer, but showed a hint of a possible association between very heavy phone use and glioma, a rare but often deadly form of brain tumor. The numbers of heavy users was not sufficient to make the case.

Bolstering this research was a study of more than 14,000 people in multiple countries, in addition to animal experiments, led the International Agency for Research on Cancer to classify electromagnetic energy from cell phones as "possibly carcinogenic."

Researchers point out that cell phones do not emit the same kind of radiation as that used in some medical tests or found in other sources such as radon in soil.

In addition, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission have found no evidence that cell phones are linked to cancer.

Fears of a link persist, in spite of the fact that cancer rates have not risen since cell phones were introduced.

Researchers determined that cancer rates in people who used cell phones for about 10 years were similar to rates in people without a cell phone. Cell phone users were also no more likely to get a tumor in the part of the brain closest to where phones are usually held against the head.

"Our study provides little evidence for a causal association, but we cannot rule out a small to moderate increase in risk for subgroups of heavy users," Patrizia Frei, of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the paper's authors says.

"This is encouraging news, but it doesn't mean we're at the end of the road," Hazel Nunn, head of Health Evidence and Information at Cancer Research U.K. says.

About three-quarters of the world's population, more than 5 billion people, use a cell phone, making it difficult for scientists to compare cancer incidence in people who use the devices as opposed to those who do not.

Nunn said studies with longer-term data were still needed and that there was little information on children's exposure to cell phones.

Altogether, researchers say that the possibility of cncer linked to cell phone usage should be kept firmly in the bottom of anyone's closet of anxieties.

"There are a lot more worrying things in the world than mobile phones," she said.

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