People who use a mobile phone for hours a day are 50 per cent more likely to develop mouth cancer than those who do not talk on them at all, new research has shown.

The study also suggests that mobile users who live in rural areas may be at an increased risk of cancer because handsets need to emit more radiation to locate fewer antennas.

Research author Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer specialist at Tel Aviv University, investigated the cases of nearly 500 people diagnosed with benign and malignant tumours of the salivary gland.

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The study is regarded as significant as it was conducted on the Israeli population who were among the first to widely adopt mobile phone technology and are among its heaviest users.

Dr Sadetzki said: "Unlike people in other countries, Israelis were quick to adopt cell phone technology and have continued to be exceptionally heavy users.

"Therefore, the amount of exposure to radio frequency radiation found in this study has been higher than in previous cell phone studies. This unique population has given us an indication that cell phone use is associated with cancer."

In the study, the 500 patients were asked to detail their mobile phone use patterns in terms of how frequently they used one, and the average length of calls. Later they were compared to a sample of around 1,300 healthy subjects.

She found that those who had used the mobile phones against the side of their heads for many hours a day were 50 per cent more likely to develop a tumour of the paratoid gland compared to infrequent users.

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