Phones can cause brain tumours, the court ruled (Rex)

Mobile phones can cause brain tumours, an Italian court has ruled.

The ruling came after a businessman, Roberto Romeo, said excessive use of phones caused him to develop a brain tumour.

He said he had no choice but to use a phone for work for up to four hours each day, over a period of 15 years.

The court agreed with his claim and awarded the 57-year-old a state-funded pension of around £400 per month.

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His lawyers said the decision could prove to be a landmark one.

“For the first time in the world, a court has recognised a causal link between inappropriate use of a mobile phone and a brain tumour,” his legal team said in a statement.

Romeo said he started having health problems seven years ago.

View photos The case involved an Italian businessman (Rex) More

“I started to have the feeling of my right ear being blocked all the time and the tumour was diagnosed in 2010,” he said.

“Happily, it was benign but I can no longer hear anything because they had to remove my acoustic nerve.”

The decision goes against others which have ruled previously that there is no health risk from mobile phones.

An International Agency for Research on Cancer study back in 2011 said mobile phones could “possibly” cause cancer but concluded there was not not enough proof.

The largest study so far – of 790,000 women – found no link between phones and cancer.