One of the most comprehensive studies to date, involving more than 800,000 women in the UK, found a similar risk of brain tumors in participants who used cell phones and those who had not. The work, which was led by scientists from Oxford University and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), adds to several previous studies indicating that normal phone use does not cause tumors of any kind.
More than 5.3 billion people in the world They have a mobile phoneAccording to the GSMA Manufacturers Association. The devices, which emit electromagnetic fields, were classified a decade ago by the IARC as “possibly carcinogenic,” after an increased risk of developing gliomas – a malignant brain tumor – was revealed in a study of more than 5,000 patients. It was just a suspicion. The World Health Organization itself Confirms “To date, it has not been confirmed that the use of mobile phones has adverse health effects.”
The new function used data from the so-called Study of one million British women, a project that recruited one in four women born between 1935 and 1950, with the primary goal of researching breast cancer. After fifteen years of follow-up, the authors discovered that 0.42% of the participants developed a brain tumor, with similar numbers in cellphone users and those who had never had a device. The scientists did not observe significant differences in the risk of developing glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, or other tumors suspected to be associated with the use of wireless devices, such as the eye or the pituitary gland.
Only 18% of study participants said they talk more than half an hour a week on a mobile phone, so it’s impossible to draw conclusions about the risks of people using it for longer, according to the epidemiologist. Joachim Schuse, a co-author on the work and a member of the IARC, the arm of the World Health Organization based in Lyon (France). “Given the lack of evidence in heavy users, it is still a good precautionary approach to advise users to reduce unnecessary exposure to mobile phones,” explains Shoe in an email.
The investigation was published on Wednesday In the specialized magazine Journal of the National Cancer Institute, explains that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which are emitted by mobile phones, penetrate several centimeters into the head. The main effect of this phenomenon is simply the superficial heating of the skin. The new work found no increased risk of developing tumors in the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain, the areas potentially most exposed to these electromagnetic fields. Furthermore, the tumors observed are diffuse to both the left and right sides, although the majority of mobile phone use is done with the right hand.
The authors also stress that emissions from current devices are “significantly lower” than those from previous generation devices. The researchers note that, “In general, a heavy mobile user today is unlikely to accumulate the same exposure to RF electromagnetic fields as a modest user of the first two generations of cordless phones.”
One advantage of the new work is that it is futuristic: Follow-up and questions about mobile phone use began before the women developed brain tumors. Until now, retrospective studies have been the norm, with people already diagnosed with cancer calculating the daily time they spend on the phone throughout their lives. In these early studies there was a risk of so-called memory bias: patients with brain tumors tended to overuse cell phones, because they might consider it to be the cause of their problems. In the new research, women broke down their daily time on the phone into two sets of questions, asked in 2001 and 2011. In this latest survey, 75% of women between 60 and 64 used a mobile phone.
Statistics Kristen BerryFrom the University of Oxford, was strong in a statement: “These findings support the evidence, which is growing in number, that mobile phone use in usual circumstances does not increase the risk of brain tumors.”
The new work does not include children or adolescents, but the authors remember that only two months ago the results of MOBI-Kids International Studywhich analyzed the potential relationship between cell phone use and the risk of brain tumors in young adults from 14 countries. The investigation – which was coordinated by epidemiologist Elizabeth Cardes, director of the radiation program at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health – found no connection.
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