LARGE STUDY SHOWS NO LINK BETWEEN CELL PHONES AND CANCER

There is no link between cell phone use and an increase risk in cancer, the largest study on the topic to date has concluded. The results were published on Friday in the medical journal BMJ. Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) studied Danish citizens between 1990 and 2007 and divided them into groups of cell phone users and non-cell phone users. A total of 358,403 cell phone users participated and the results were applied to an earlier study that was completed between 1982 and 1995.

“We observed no overall increased risk of tumors of the central nervous system for all cancers combined associated with the use of mobile phones,” the study said. The researchers did admit there could be a risk for a select amount of users and that further research would be useful. “As a small to moderate increase in risk for subgroups of heavy users or after even longer induction periods than 10-15 years cannot be ruled out, however, further studies with large study populations, where the potential for misclassifications of exposure and selection bias is minimized, are warranted,” the researchers said.

A World Health Organization report published in May of last year suggested that radio frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer associated with wireless use.” That report was quickly shot down by multiple researchers. Another study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which involved 1,000 participants, also concluded there is no link between cell phone use and increased cancer rates. Similar findings were published in The Economist and in Environmental Health Perspectives.