No cancer risk from cell phone radiation?

Allegedly no connection between brain tumors and mobile phone use

29/07/2011

The potential health risks of cell phone radiation are still highly controversial in the professional world. Whether the radiation can lead to tissue changes and thus to an increased risk of cancer, is one of the main issues.

As part of a comprehensive study, Swiss researchers at the University of Basel have now investigated possible relationships between the risk of brain tumors and the exposure to mobile phone radiation in adolescents and children. The result: The researchers were unable to detect an increased risk of cancer in the children and adolescents using the mobile phone.

Effects of cell phone radiation in the brain
In the current study, the researchers at the University of Basel compared the data of 352 children and adolescents from Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, who had been diagnosed with brain tumors between 2004 and 2008, with those of a 646-person control group. Among other things, the mobile phone use of cancer patients was compared with the mobile phone use of randomly selected controls of the same age, gender and place of residence. Although it has been proven that certain areas of the brain are particularly heavily irradiated during mobile phone calls, an increased risk of cancer is not associated with this radiation, according to the latest study, according to the researchers. Even five years after the first use of the mobile phone, there is no increased risk of brain cancer, according to the experts. However, the researchers did not want to give a general all-clear.

Uncertainties about possible cancer risks
With regard to a possible link between mobile phone radiation and the risk of cancer, uncertainties persist, as the overall use of mobile phone users was relatively low, according to the Swiss researchers. In addition, the data on the mobile phone use of the subjects are the result of a survey, and it remains unclear how exactly the details of the study participants to their previous mobile phone use actually. A slight increase in risk can therefore not be ruled out on the basis of the current study, the researchers concluded. However, even such a minimal increase in risk could trigger a considerable number of additional illnesses with the large number of mobile phone uses of children and adolescents. Therefore, the Swiss scientists urge that further studies on the risks of mobile phone radiation to health are required and argue that the cancer registry data should be regularly monitored for a possible increase in new cases of brain tumors.

No general all-clear for high-frequency electromagnetic radiation
In view of the imponderables of the new study expressed by the Swiss researchers themselves, this will hardly contribute to settling the dispute in the professional world about possible correlations between cell phone radiation and cancer risk. In particular, as the World Health Organization warned at the beginning of June of the potentially carcinogenic effects of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation used in mobile communications. Referring to the findings of an expert commission of the International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC, the WHO stated that frequent use of the mobile phone could significantly increase the risk of brain tumors. Until further study results are available, consumers should be exposed to as little as possible of potentially harmful radiation, WHO warned in June. These study results are now available with the current study of Swiss researchers and they point in a fundamentally different direction than the fears of WHO. But the scientists at the University of Basel also stated that further studies will be needed to finally assess the cancer risk of cell phone radiation. Thus, the public after the study is as smart as before and can only hope for complementary research. (Fp)

Also read:
Cell phone radiation may cause cancer

Image: Harald Wanetschka