May 24, 1999: 11:42 a.m. ET


LONDON (CNNfn) – A flagship BBC current affairs program is set to turn up the heat in the ongoing debate over the potential cancer risks posed by cellphones, when it will claim two new studies have revealed a link with phone usage and brain tumors.

Two scientists, heading their respective research programs, told the program "Panorama" that cellphone use could pose a threat to users’ health.

Swedish cancer specialist Dr. Lennart Hardell tells the program: "There is a biological indication that there is a problem which should be studied much more. I think that until we have the definite conclusions, the definitive results of much larger studies, we need to minimize the exposure to human beings."

Further damning evidence comes from Dr. George Carlo, a U.S. scientist who is heading a $25 million research body funded by the mobile phone industry, who concedes that there is cause for concern. "We clearly have results here that suggest there could be something more here than meets the eye," he told "Panorama," referring to an as-yet unpublished U.S. study that is said to show an increased risk of getting a rare brain tumor, and the Swedish study.

"The science we have today clearly shows that this it not black and white. That we have moved now into a gray area, that suggests there could be a problem that needs to be looked at very, very carefully. That gray area needs to be acknowledged," Carlo said. The program is due to be aired in the U.K. Monday night.

But Tom Wills-Sandford, a spokesman for the Federation of Electronic Industries, a U.K. organization that represents cellphone operators and manufacturers, dismissed the issues raised by the program and accused the BBC of taking the scientists’ comments out of context.

Wills-Sandford said the overall conclusion from Hardell’s study ruled out any link. He claimed the study concluded there was no increased risk of brain tumors from the use of mobile phones.

"Based on all the scientific evidence, there is no established link" between brain cancer and cellphone use, he told CNNfn.com. "It is important that these studies be taken in the totality of science, " he added.

Cellphone related stocks were trading lower in London in a flat market. British Telecommunications (BT.A), which owns 60 percent of cellular phone operator

Cellnet, was off by more than 4 percent.

But one analyst, who asked not to be named, said the health scare surrounding cellphones so far was having little effect on his thinking. "This is a long way from being something that City analysts worry about," he said , but acknowledge that "there’s a raft of differing opinions" on the issue.

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