Madam, – I disagree with Bill Tormey (June 3rd). The Interphone study was inconclusive and it is no surprise. Exposure to environmental threats (such as mobile phone use, chemicals in drinking water, incineration, etc) are notoriously difficult to measure at an individual level and if studies are not long enough or big enough we are left with neither strong evidence of safety or strong evidence of a problem.
The precautionary approach is then the only public health option. This is exactly what happened with the Interphone study. Even tobacco could not have been identified as a carcinogen in the short five- to 10-year follow-up time of this study.
However, one issue in a commentary accompanying the paper received little attention. Unbiased details of mobile phone use exist in our phone records and most developed countries, including Ireland, have excellent cancer registries. A study linking the two could be done with large numbers, in timely way, under strict confidentiality conditions. Such a study was initiated by Kenneth Rothman in the 1990s, in the US, until a class action stopped him.
There are many instances when public health should take precedence over individual privacy and industry profit, but it rarely does. I think this is one of them. – Yours, etc,