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Surprising Science — October 22, 2011

No Cell Phone Link to Brain Cancer

As use of mobile phones has spiked over the last 20 years, the health risks they present have been much debated. New research rejects a link between phone use and brain cancer.

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What’s the Latest Development?

The latest scientific study to examine potential links between cell phone use and brain cancer rejects any causal connection. Looking at more than 350,000 people with mobile phones over an 18-year period, the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Denmark found that: “Of the 358,403 mobile phone owners looked at, 356 gliomas (a type of brain cancer) and 846 cancers of the central nervous system were seen—both in line with incidence rates among those who did not own a mobile.”

What’s the Big Idea?

If it seems that the scientific debate over a cell phone link to brain cancer has gone on and on, keep in mind that data on mobile phone use only extends back to 1995. And given the ubiquity of cell phones today, studies inevitably compare early adopters to late adopters. Still, the Danish study presents the “strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults.”

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