Per New Study: No Connection Between Brain Cancer And Mobile Phones

According to a new study conducted by several of Australia’s foremost cancer experts, there is no correlation between brain cancer and regular mobile phone use. The study was headed by Simon Chapman, the emeritus professor of public health at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney’s. Chapman and his colleagues (Lamiae Azizi, Qingwei Luo, and Freddy Sitas) looked into more than 19,800 cases of male brain cancer patients as well as over 14,200 cases of female brain cancer patients between the years 1982 and 2012. His team of researchers concluded that there is no causal link between brain cancer and mobile phones whatsoever.

Australia has been a really good venue for studying the purported relationship between cancer and constant use of mobile devices. This is because in the land down under, every person that is diagnosed with cancer is required by law to be formally registered. As a result, the country has quite a comprehensive collection of information regarding cancer cases. 

Chapman’s team of researchers found that the rate of age adjusted brain cancer cases in patients between 20 to 84 years old had increased only just a little bit in men, but were stable over three decades in women. Moreover, the slight increase in male brain cancer patients appears only those who were at least 70 years old. Interestingly, this trend started in 1982, a year in which mobile phone technology has not reached Australia yet. Chapman also noted that the increase may have something to do with improvements in diagnostic methods which detected previously overlooked cases of cancer, as opposed to a genuine increase in the number of cancer cases itself.

The Australian researchers also computed the probable numbers of brain cancer patients that would manifest if mobile phones did indeed cause cancer, based on a presumed 50 percent increase over background incidence (considered a very conservative estimate based on studies that indicate a possible causal cancer risk). But the comparison did not show any proof of an increase in cancer cases even in the time when people were already widely using mobile phones for several decades -- indeed, the team’s projection for 2012 was 1,866 cases; while in reality, the number is 1,435. 

It bears noting that this latest study is not the first to be conducted regarding the subject of brain cancer and mobile phone use. However, like Chapman and his team, these researchers in the past have not found any real proof of a correlation between the two. Still, certain circles still insist otherwise.