A large scale study has found that regular phone usage does not increase the risk of brain tumours.
Contents
Sample Size
It was conducted by Oxford University and published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute.
The study is prospective in nature, meaning that participants are enrolled before they develop the disease(s) in question.
The study observed 776,000 women who were asked to complete questionnaires about their mobile phone usage in 2001.
Methodology
Half of them were surveyed again in 2011.
They were then followed up for an average of 14 years through linkage to their health records.
Phone use was studied in relation to the risk of various types of brain tumour:
- Glioma (a tumour of the nervous system)
- Acoustic neuroma (a tumour of the nerve connecting the brain and inner ear)
- Meningioma (a tumour of the membrane surrounding the brain)
- Pituitary gland tumours
Findings
By 2011 the study found that almost 75 percent of women aged between 60 and 64 years used a mobile phone, and just below 50 per cent of those aged between 75 and 79 years.
Over the 14-year follow-up period, 3,268 of the women developed a brain tumour.
This led researchers to conclude that there was no significant difference in the risk of developing a brain tumour between those who used mobile phones and those who did not.
Conclusion
Furthermore, there was no higher risk of developing any type of tumour for those who used a mobile phone daily, spoke for at least 20 minutes a week or had used a mobile phone for over 10 years.
A study co-investigator from Oxford Population Health’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit Kirstin Pirie said that the results support rising evidence that phone use under usual conditions does not increase brain tumour risk
Scientists elsewhere who studied children and adolescents also found no link between mobile phone use and brain tumour risk.