Using a cell phone to make a call, let alone a lot of calls, may already seem like a foreign concept to many Americans, but for the remaining handful that use their phones as, you know, phones could worry about the link between exposure to radio frequency and brain cancer.
A new study from scientists at the University of Manchester has found there may not be much need for concern -- radio frequency exposure from cell phone use does not appear to increase the risk of developing brain cancers by any significant amount.
The researchers used publicly available data from the UK Office of National Statistics to look at trends in rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England between 1998 and 2007.
The study, published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics, reported no statistically significant change in the incidence of brain cancers in men or women during the nine-year time period under observation.
Lead researcher Dr. Frank de Vocht, an expert in occupational and environmental health in the University of Manchester's School of Community-Based Medicine said cell phone use in the United Kingdom and other countries has risen steeply since the early 1990s when the first digital cell phones were introduced and with it, the ongoing controversy about whether or not they cause cancer.
Causal link unlikely
"Our findings indicate that a causal link between cell phone use and cancer is unlikely because there is no evidence of any significant increase in the disease since their introduction and rapid proliferation," said de Vocht.
According to the study authors, because there is no plausible way for radio waves to damage our genes directly (thereby causing cells to become cancerous), if radio frequency exposure is related to cancer at all, it’s more likely to promote growth in existing brain tumors.
As such, the researchers say they would expect an increase in the number of diagnosed cases of brain cancer within five to 10 years of the introduction of cell phones and for this increase to continue as cell phone use became more widespread.
The 1998 to 2007 study period would therefore relate to the period 1990 to 2002 when cell phone use in the UK increased from zero to 65% of households.
The team, which included researchers from the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh and Drexel University, Philadelphia, found a small increase in the incidence of cancers in the temporal lobe of 0.6 cases per 100,000 people or 31 extra cases per year in a population of 52 million.
Brain cancers of the parietal lobe, cerebrum and cerebellum in men actually fell slightly between 1998 and 2007.
"Our research suggests that the increased and widespread use of cell phones, which in some studies was associated to increased brain cancer risk, has not led to a noticeable increase in the incidence of brain cancer in England between 1998 and 2007," said de Vocht.
"It is very unlikely that we are at the forefront of a brain cancer epidemic related to cell phones, as some have suggested, although we did observe a small increased rate of brain cancers in the temporal lobe corresponding to the time period when cell phone use rose from zero to 65% of households. However, to put this into perspective, if this specific rise in tumor incidence was caused by cell phone use, it would contribute to less than one additional case per 100,000 population in a decade.”
De Vocht said researchers cannot rule out the possibility that there are people who are susceptible to radio-frequency exposure or that some rare brain cancers are associated with it, however “we interpret our data as not indicating a pressing need to implement public health measures to reduce radio-frequency exposure from cell phones."
