Medical expert of the article
New publications
The connection between brain cancer and mobile phones is not proven
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
If you are concerned about mobile phones, the results of studies conducted by Danish scientists can reassure you. Do not worry - your phone is certainly safe, they say.
In the most large-scale study to date, which is devoted to the possible connection between the use of mobile phones and the development of cancer tumors, no correlation was found. Danish experts have concluded that billions of people who rarely release their phones more than a few centimeters do not have special concerns for their health.
The researchers studied data on 350,000 people and concluded that there is no difference in the incidence of cancer among those who have used mobile phones for more than ten years and those who do not use them.
In 2010, another large-scale study was conducted, the results of which did not reveal a clear connection between the use of mobile phones and the development of cancer. However, it pointed to a possible link between frequent phone conversations and the emergence of glioma, a rare but deadly form of brain cancer. At that time, about 14,000 people were examined in several countries, but the number of overactive mobile phone users was insufficient to make an unambiguous conclusion. Nevertheless, this study and animal experiments prompted the International Agency for Research on Cancer to characterize the electromagnetic waves of cellular phones as "possibly carcinogenic" and to include them in the appropriate list along with coffee and automobile exhausts.
However, this does not mean that phones necessarily represent a health hazard. They do not emit radiation used in some medical tests, or contained in other sources, for example in the soil in the form of radon.
Two US government agencies in the US - the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission - found no evidence of cell phones being linked to cancer.
However, fears persist, despite the fact that the proportion of cancer patients did not increase after the introduction of cellular phones into mass use.