Cellphones Don't Cause Cancer, New Study Reports
Earlier this month, my number 3 pick for the Top 5 Bogus Health Scares was the claim that radio frequency waves from cellphones cause cancer. A new study in the International Journal of Epidemiology by Oxford University epidemiologist Victoria Benson and her colleagues adds more evidence that cellphone-induced cancer is bogus.
As the folks over at the American Council on Science and Health note…
…the British Million Women Study… followed nearly 800,000 women for seven years. The women's cell phone use was assessed at the start of the study (1999 through 2005), and again in 2009. The occurrence of several types of brain cancer, such as glioma and meningioma was ascertained.
During the follow up period, there were approximately 52,000 new invasive cancers overall, and of these 1,261 were brain cancers. When the researchers correlated the occurrence of cancers overall with the use of cell phones, they found no change in risk of cancers. When they examined specific brain cancers and compared their frequency in people who reported long-term use of cell phones with those of people who never used them, again there was no difference in risk.
The study concluded:
In this large prospective study, mobile phone use was not associated with increased incidence of glioma, meningioma or non-CNS cancers.
For more background, see my column, "Top 5 Bogus Health Scares."