A scientific survey shows that we can now be sure that cell phones do not pose a significant brain tumour risk. These findings come from detailed analysis of trends in brain cancer in European countries in the 30 years up to 2003, which did not tie any cancer trends to patterns of cell phone usage.
Researchers analyzed annual incidence rates of the two major types of brain tumours-glioma and meningioma-among adults aged 20 to 79 from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 1974 to 2003.
Over the 3 decades from which the study examined, nearly 60,000 patients were diagnosed as suffering from one of these two types of brain tumour.
"In Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the use of mobile phones increased sharply in the mid-1990s; thus, time trends in brain tumours incidence after 1998 may provide information about possible tumours risks associated with mobile phone use," the researchers wrote.
They did observe a small, steady increase in brain tumours during this time, which started in 1974, long before mobile phones became a factor. There are many other more relevant factors that this increase can be attributed to such as improved life expectancy.
"No change in incidence trends were observed from 1998 to 2003," they stated. That would have been when tumours would start showing up, based on the assumption that it took five to 10 years for one to develop.
It is feasibly possible, Deltour's team wrote, that it takes longer than 10 years for tumours caused by mobile phones to turn up, that the tumours are too rare in this group to show a useful trend, or that there are trends but they are in subgroups too small to be measured in the study, however these weaknesses are common in research and such trends would buck the evidence presented as yet.
It is true that the latency of brain tumours can be up to 30 years. So some may consider it absurd to try and draw conclusions from this short period of time. Also, the researcher did not analyse age-specific incidences of brain tumours, even though you would detect an increase in age-specific incidence of brain tumours before an increase in the wider population.
Further, the data was actually collected and available through 2007, but the researchers cut the analysis off at 2003. This is currently being investigated to find out if the extra four years of data would change the study results. - 31834
Researchers analyzed annual incidence rates of the two major types of brain tumours-glioma and meningioma-among adults aged 20 to 79 from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 1974 to 2003.
Over the 3 decades from which the study examined, nearly 60,000 patients were diagnosed as suffering from one of these two types of brain tumour.
"In Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the use of mobile phones increased sharply in the mid-1990s; thus, time trends in brain tumours incidence after 1998 may provide information about possible tumours risks associated with mobile phone use," the researchers wrote.
They did observe a small, steady increase in brain tumours during this time, which started in 1974, long before mobile phones became a factor. There are many other more relevant factors that this increase can be attributed to such as improved life expectancy.
"No change in incidence trends were observed from 1998 to 2003," they stated. That would have been when tumours would start showing up, based on the assumption that it took five to 10 years for one to develop.
It is feasibly possible, Deltour's team wrote, that it takes longer than 10 years for tumours caused by mobile phones to turn up, that the tumours are too rare in this group to show a useful trend, or that there are trends but they are in subgroups too small to be measured in the study, however these weaknesses are common in research and such trends would buck the evidence presented as yet.
It is true that the latency of brain tumours can be up to 30 years. So some may consider it absurd to try and draw conclusions from this short period of time. Also, the researcher did not analyse age-specific incidences of brain tumours, even though you would detect an increase in age-specific incidence of brain tumours before an increase in the wider population.
Further, the data was actually collected and available through 2007, but the researchers cut the analysis off at 2003. This is currently being investigated to find out if the extra four years of data would change the study results. - 31834
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