An Australian study in to the correlation between mobile phone use and brain tumours, has found that the use of mobiles does not increase the risk of brain cancer.
The study was carried out looking at data from the 30 years between 1982 and 2012. 19,858 men and 14,222 women who had been diagnosed with brain cancer in Australia during the period were examined under the study, to determine if the increase in mobile phone use had seen an increase in brain cancer.
They found that during the thirty-year period, cancer rates in Twenty to Eighty Four year olds remained the same in women, with a very slight increase in men. A significant rise was noticed in elderly patients over 70, but it was noted that that the increase here began five years prior to the arrival of mobile phones in Australia, which didn’t occur until 1987. A possible explanation was listed as improved diagnosis.
Brain tumours have similar symptoms to unrelated conditions such as strokes and dementia. CT and MRI scans makes it far easier for doctors to make accurate diagnosis of conditions. These technologies were not used in Australia until the late 1970’s which supports the possibility.
For years there has been no conclusive evidence to support a link between mobile phone use and specific cancers. This hasn’t stopped people from believing that devices that emit electromagnetic radiation cause cancers and other illnesses.
Australia, is a great place for a study of this kind to be conducted. By law, all new cases of cancer must be recorded and are logged on a national database. Mobile providers of course also keep data on the number of users on their network. Which gave the organisers of the study access to all the facts.
While little may be known about the relation of mobile phone radiation to cancer rates, scientists do know that when cancer is caused by radiation it usually takes around ten years to develop. The study looked at data from the last thirty years, of course widespread use of mobile phone has happened rapidly over the last fifteen years or so.
To try and look at this the University of Sydney, who conducted the study used a testing model which assumed a ten-year delay from the start of mobile usage. The model assumed a 50% increase in incidents of brain cancer. Using this hypothesise the expected number of brain cancer cases in 2012 would have been 1,866 cases. The recorded number was actually far lower at 1,435.
Mobile phones do not produce ionising radiation, which is the form seen in things like atomic bombs. The radiation emitted from mobile devices is non-ionising, which means it is low energy.
Mobiles have been used in Australia since 1987, 90% of the population use them, a large number of these have done so for around twenty years with no adverse effect. Of course this won’t be enough to hush all the critics, but in all the studies carried out over the years, no conclusive evidence has ever been shown to prove mobile phones increase the risk of cancer.