Science News Archive

Mobile phones off the hook as cause of brain cancer?

A large study of brain cancer cases has failed to find any increase in line with mobile phone use.

Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Danish Cancer Society scientist Isabelle Deltour and her colleagues looked at 60,000 patients with brain cancers diagnosed between 1974 and 2003 from a population of more than 16 million.  The researchers found that the incidence of gliomas and meningiomas among adults was stable over this time and, critically, there was no change reflecting the sudden surge in mobile phone use that occurred in the mid 1990s.

The authors acknowledge that the time between mobile phone exposure and the development of a brain tumour could be greater than the 5-10 year lead-time investigated in the study, and they also point out that, if such an effect does exist, it may also be be too small to be observed here.  But, more reassuringly, it could also confirm that there is no increased risk of brain cancer conferred by mobile phone use.

As we have no way of knowing which it is, for the meantime at least, we'll just need to hang on to find out...

6th Dec 2009