Italy: Appeal court backs man who claimed phone use gave him brain tumour

Roberto Romeo, 59, suffered whistling in his right ear before requiring surgery in 2011 to remove a 2cm neuroma which left him deaf in one ear and with minor facial paralysis.

He argued that 15 years of phone use at work was responsible for the cancer.

In 2017 judges found in his favour, a ruling that has now been upheld by the appeal court in Turin. It accepted the views of the court-appointed experts that “a large part” of the research which plays down the risks of mobile phones use were carried out by people with “a conflict of interest”.

Last year the country’s health institute said two decades of research had not shown any link between phone use and cancer.

“The Institute however used experts who have done consultancy work for telephone companies,” said Stefano Bertone, one of Mr Romeo’s lawyers.

Jacopo Giunta, another of his lawyers, said a similar case was won by another man in Monza last year.

“We believe just 30 minutes a day spent on a mobile phone for eight years is enough to raise the health risk,” he said.

Mr Romeo now lectures on the dangers of mobile phone use.

“I advise parents not to give children a phone before they are 12 because their crania are too thin to resist the radiation, and not to use phones in the car, because they need to generate more power to switch from one cell phone tower to the next as you move,” he said.