Technology has made the world come closer, and communication is now faster than ever before. Most of us would agree that it’s still arguable whether talking over the phone is considered to have harmful effects on health. But a recent study conducted by the University of Leeds and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) claims that, there is no correlation between mobile phone use and brain tumors.
Mobile phone usage was believed to elevate the risk of cancer and to determine this, the investigators undertook an interphone. It means an interview-based, case-control study. The study aimed to determine the impact of using a mobile phone on the two main types of brain tumor, glioma and meningioma.
Professor Patricia McKinney, epidemiologist at the University of Leeds and leader of the UK North part of Interphone, shared, “Overall this research has not shown evidence of an increased risk of developing a glioma or meningioma brain tumor as a result of using a mobile phone. This is consistent with published biological studies, which have not established any effect of exposure to radiation from mobile phones at a cellular level nor found a mechanism by which cancer could be caused”.
The investigators undertook the interphone, with the assistance of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). This largest ever study on mobile phone usage, encompassed 13 countries worldwide. The study which was carried out between, 2000 and 2004 had comprised 2708 male and female participants. All the participants belonged to the age group of 30-59 years with glioma.
The study also included 2409 patients, with meningioma. Their results were then compared, to adults without a brain tumor. All the participants were made to undergo, an interview about mobile phone usage. They were questioned, about when they commenced to use a cell phone and how many times they used it. They were also enquired about the total time they engaged with their phone.
No risk of glioma or meningioma brain tumors, in regular users of mobile phones was registered. In fact, it appeared that regular users faced a reduced risk for the same. It should be noted that, the culminated hours of phone may elevate the risk of glioma amongst the highest ten percent of users.
Professor Anthony Swerdlow, epidemiologist at The Institute of Cancer Research and leader of the UK South part of the Interphone project, commented, “Interphone is by far the largest study of its type to date. The balance of evidence from this study, and in the previously existing scientific literature, does not suggest a causal link between mobile phone use and risk of brain tumors. The duration of phone use for which we yet have evidence is currently limited, however, and we have virtually no information for use of mobile phones for longer than 15 years.”
Although, some of these had reported, improbable reports, no trend was revealed amongst people who reported that they use the phone for many hours. Claimed to be the largest study till date on mobile phone usage, it supposedly determines that there is no correlation between using mobile handsets for long hours and being prone to brain tumours.
The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.