Australia's foremost cancer expert in mobile phone research said evidence "is not at all strong" that using a mobile phone increases the risk of developing brain tumours.
"There's been quite a lot of research done," Sydney University professor of public health Bruce Armstrong ninemsn.
"Certainly [the link] is not proven at this time."
Professor Armstrong, a cancer epidemiologist who has been studying the possibility of a link between mobile phone use and cancer since the late 1990s, said that studies suggesting that brain tumours were more likely to develop on the side of the brain favoured by a mobile phone user were inconsistent.
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"The general judgment at this point in time is that while there are some bits of evidence to suggest that there could be an association, the evidence is not at all strong," he said.
Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation, similar to a household microwave, which has the potential to damage DNA through heat, though the amount of heat is far less than with ultraviolet or nuclear radiation.
"The amount of energy that we absorb when using a mobile phone is probably not enough to actually cause heating of tissue," Armstrong said.
But Professor Armstrong, who uses a mobile phone, admitted that he couldn't be absolutely confident there was no risk. He was also unwilling to rule out the possibility that a yet-to-be-proven link exists, or that a stronger link could be proved further down the track.
That’s because mobile phone use is a relatively new trend and some tumours may take many years to develop.
"Sometimes you do see very long periods of time between when first exposure begins and when tumours start to occur," he said.
"But my judgment would be that on present evidence if there is a risk it's probably not a very big one."
Professor Armstrong's view contradicts other specialists who have warned that extended mobile phone use could lead to an increase in the number of brain tumours that occur, including prominent neurosurgeons Charlie Teo and Vini Khurana.
In 2008, Canberra-based Dr Khurana published a paper that concluded that using mobiles for more than 10 years could more than double the risk of brain cancer.
Some experts have advised that children and young people are at greater risk of damage because their nervous systems are still developing.
Professor Armstrong suggested that if individuals were concerned, they could choose to limit their own or their children's exposure by limiting length of calls or by using speakerphone devices to keep mobile phones away from the head and body. They could also forego mobile use altogether in favour of a landline.
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