Expert Independent Panel Reviews Mobile Phone Link to Brain Tumours

2 July 2011 - Accumulating scientific research is increasingly against the theory that mobile phone use causes brain tumours, a comprehensive analysis from an independent international expert panel has found.

The review was led by Professor Anthony Swerdlow from The Institute of Cancer Research, as chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) Standing Committee on Epidemiology.

The ICNIRP committee analysed all published studies that have examined whether there is a link between mobile phone use and the main types of brain tumour, glioma and meningioma. They noted that the largest epidemiological study to date, the Interphone Study, was comprehensive but had several methodological deficits.

They concluded that its results, in conjunction with other studies that have examined risks after use of mobile phones and the location of tumours relative to phone use, gave no convincing evidence of a link.  

Furthermore, studies from several countries have shown no indication of increases in brain tumour incidence while extensive research has also not established any biological mechanism by which radiofrequency fields from mobile phones could cause cancer. However, the authors say that uncertainty is bound to remain for many years to come.

View the full journal article in Environmental Health Perspectives