Mobile-cancer link ruled out
Friday October 21st, 2011
Medical researchers have ruled out any link between the long-term use of mobile phones and increased risk of tumours of the brain or central nervous system.
The
largest ever study on the subject, led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology
in Copenhagen, Denmark, found no overall increased risk after following
a study of 358,403 mobile phone subscribers in the country over 18 years.
Previous studies that examined a possible link have been inconclusive, particularly on long-term use of mobile phones.
Researchers continued a nationwide study that compared cancer risk of all 420,095 Danish mobile phone subscribers from 1982 until 1995, with a follow-in 1996 and 2002.
This research continued the study up to 2007 and the findings are published in the British Medical Journal.
They scrutinised data on the whole Danish population aged 30 and over and born in Denmark after 1925, subdivided into subscribers and non-subscribers of mobile phones before 1995.
It was found that 10,729 central nervous system tumours were diagnosed between 1990 and 2007.
But when the figures were restricted to people with the longest mobile phone use of 13 years or more, cancer rates were almost the same in both long-term users and non-subscribers of mobile phones.
“The extended follow-up allowed us to investigate effects in people who had used mobile phones for 10 years or more, and this long-term use was not associated with higher risks of cancer,” they said.
“However, 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, further studies with large study populations, where the potential for misclassification of exposure and selection bias is minimised, are warranted.”
In an accompanying editorial, Professors Anders Ahlbom and Maria Feychting at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden said while the new evidence is reassuring, continued monitoring of health registers and prospective cohorts is still warranted.
British Medical Journal October 21 2011
Tags: Cancer | Europe | General Health
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