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Publishing the largest UK investigation into possible health problems from mobile technology, scientists say the six-year program found no evidence that short-term mobile phone use affected brain function or could cause brain cancer.

But Professor Lawrie Challis, chairman of the £8.8 million Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Program, warns that studies so far have included few participants who had used mobile phones for 10 years or longer.

"We cannot rule out the possibility at this stage that cancer could appear in a few years' time," he says. "Most cancers take 10 years to

Challis also notes that the UK studies that made up the report had not yet examined children. Ethical reasons had caused British scientists to shy away from exposing children to radio-frequency (RF) fields, which are generated by devices such as mobile phones and phone masts.

However, he suggests that it is possible for children to be more sensitive to RF radiation than adults and says a second MTHR program is underway, involving 200,000 people in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Britain.

In the meantime, he stops short of advising parents against allowing children to use mobile phones as a precautionary measure. "I'm afraid it's up to someone else to give advice," he says.

The MTHR Program is jointly funded by the government and telecoms industry. The telecoms industry, however, merely "signed the cheques", Challis says.

Scientists around the world have been monitoring the effects of radio-frequency fields on human health for around 60 years. Although evidence to date has cleared mobile phone technology of health risks, public concern is rising as more and more adults and children rely increasingly heavily on the technology for everyday communication.