Worried about links between cell phone use and brain cancer? Don t be. A new, prospective study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, has examined the possibility of this connection and dismissed it at least for women.
Dr. Victoria S. Benson of Oxford University and colleagues, as part of the British Million Women Study, followed nearly 800,000 women for seven years. The women s cell phone use was assessed at the start of the study (1999 through 2005), and again in 2009. The occurrence of several types of brain cancer, such as glioma and meningioma was ascertained.
During the follow up period, there were approximately 52,000 new invasive cancers overall, and of these 1,261 were brain cancers. When the researchers correlated the occurrence of cancers overall with the use of cell phones, they found no change in risk of cancers. When they examined specific brain cancers and compared their frequency in people who reported long-term use of cell phones with those of people who never used them, again there was no difference in risk.
The authors concluded In this large prospective study, mobile phone use was not associated with increased incidence of glioma, meningioma or non-CNS cancers.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross commented Hopefully this study will lay to rest unwarranted fears about links between cell phone use and brain cancer. This is a well-designed study with a large number of participants. If a link had been there, this study would have found it.