There is no causal link between mobile phone use and brain cancer, a new epidemiological study by some of Australia’s leading cancer specialists says. Now, these worries are seemingly debunked, as a massive Australian survey and study concluded today that smartphone radiation and brain cancer are not related.
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For the study, trends analysis of mobile phone use was compared with national cancer data, which shows 19,858 males and 14,222 females aged 20-84 were diagnosed with brain cancer between 1982 and 2012.
The study conducted in Australia and spanning almost three decades points out that there’s no risk of an increase in brain tumor incidences due to radiation emitted by mobile phones.
The study did find significant increases in brain cancer incidences in people 70 years old or more, but the study found that the increase in brain cancer rates in that age group began in 1982, before mobile phones were introduced in 1987.
A 1987 Telstra ad for Australia’s first mobile phone. The team correlated their findings with the vastly increased smartphone usage in Australia in the past three decades, and in short, they arrived that the conclusion that smartphone radiation does not cause brain cancer. In order for the medical industry to be 100 percent sure of what can and cannot cause cancer, which has a rather long latency, we need to wait a few more years and for quite a few more studies.
All that said, there have been some studies conducted that have found a correlation between cell phones and cancer, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
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Expected estimates of brain cancer incidences were based on former studies that indicated an increase in the disease of up to 150 per cent in heavy mobile phone users. Still, the results also support previous tests carried out in the US, England, New Zealand, and Nordic countries. Increased incidences of cancer in the country during the time period are now credited to better detection of cancer using improved imaging techniques that debuted in the early 1980’s, like CT scans. The radiation used for cell phones falls well within the range that is too weak to cause harm. “I don’t know whether people ought to waste their money, I suppose it might give peace of mind, but there is nothing in the data that suggests anything is going on”.
