The Italian Supreme Court has ruled there is a causal link between mobile phone use and brain tumors in a landmark case. The ruling has set a legal precedent that could potentially trigger a deluge of lawsuits.

Innocente Marcolini, a 60-year-old retired businessman argued that the excessive use of his mobile phone for around six hours every day for 12 years caused a benign brain tumor that left his face partially paralyzed.

The Italian court ruled in the businessman’s favor, conceding that there is a “causal link” between phone use and the development of the tumor.

"This is significant for very many people. I wanted this problem to become public because many people still do not know the risks,” said Marcolini to Corriere della Sera. “I was always on the phone for at least five or six hours a day. Always with a mobile pressed to my ear.”