No Link Between Mobile Phones And Brain Cancer Risks? (image@ Pixabay)
Rumours have been going wild that mobile phones will cause brain and head cancers. Well, hold your horses! A biggest study so far on the subject now says that there is no threat of cancer from using mobile phones.
Commissioned by World Health Organization (WHO), and led by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa), the systemic analysis of the matter reviewed more than 5,000 studies. Most of the scientifically rigorous stories were taken and weak ones were excluded. The findings were published on the journal Environmental International.
The review analysed 63 observational studies that were published between 1994 to 2022, making the study one “the most comprehensive review to date”.
The review focused on cancers of the central nervous system including brain, meninges, pituitary gland, salivary gland, and ear.
Also Read: No Screen Time For Toddlers, Sweden Tells Parents
The review concluded that there is no overall association between mobile phone use and cancer. It said that there is no association with prolonged use (if people use their mobile phones for 10 years or more), and no association with the amount of mobile phone use (the number of calls made or the time spent on the phone).
“I’m quite confident with our conclusion. And what makes us quite confident is … even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumour rates have remained stable,” The Guardian quotes as Ken Karipidis, Arpansa’s health impact assessment assistant director is saying.
The research team included 11 experts from 10 different countries, including representatives from Australia’s radiation protection authority. The study mainly focused on the effect of radiofrequency, which are used in mobile phones, and devices like televisions, radars and baby monitors.
Like any other wireless technology laptops, radio and TV transmissions, and mobile phone towers, mobile phones also emit radio waves. Karipidis, who is also the vice-chairman of the International Commission on the Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, upon hearing ‘radiation’, people assume it to be nuclear radiation.
“And because we use a mobile phone close to the head when we’re making calls, there is a lot of concern”, he said.
Also Read: Kerala’s ‘Zero Profit Anti-Cancer Medicine Counters’ To Offer Up to 96% Discounts
Karipidis clarified that, “Radiation is basically energy that travels from one point to another. There are many different types, for example, ultraviolet radiation from the sun… We’re always exposed to low-level radio waves in the everyday environment”.
However, while exposure from mobile phones are still low, it is much higher than exposure from any other wireless technology sources, as it used close to the head.
Co-author of the study, and professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Mark Elwood, none of the major areas studies showed an increased risk of cancer.
Researchers, including Karipidis, and Sara Loughran, wrote, “Overall, the results are very reassuring. They mean that our national and international safety limits are protective. Mobile phones emit low-level radio waves below these safety limits, and there is no evidence exposure to these has an impact on human health”, as quoted by media.
According to the International Agency for Research on Camcer (IARC), mobile phone radiation are currently classified as “possibly carcinogenic”, or class 2B. This means that potential link of cancer and mobile phones cannot be ruled out.
