Mobile phones don't cause cancer; yes they do; no they don't

David Heath
Monday, 24 October 2011 23:15

Science - Biology

A long-term study of Danish mobile phone use has unequivocally determined that there is no connection between mobile phone use and various cancers of the brain.  The nay-sayers have rushed to contradict the findings.

Allow me to present the primary research papers and also to attempt to navigate amongst them.

Dated 20 October 2011, the latest Danish study seeks to investigate any connection between extended mobile phone use and a variety of tumours in proximity to the ear.  According to the abstract "Frei and colleagues found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised in 358,403 Danish mobile phone subscribers.  This was also true when the cohort was restricted to people who had been subscribing for more than 10 years, when gliomas and meningiomas were analysed separately, and when tumours in the anatomical region closest to the handset were analysed."

The study benefitted from two major methodological advantages - firstly that computerised data could be followed in the Health Department records (unlike USA, Denmark has a universal, government sponsored health system), avoiding any need to contact individuals and secondly that digitised subscriber data from the telcos could easily be cross-matched to glean long-term usage trends.

The next paper of interest was released on 31 May 2011.