Big Dane study finds no mobe cancer link

Tumour doomsayers barking up wrong tree

By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author

Posted in Biology, 21st October 2011 11:29 GMT

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A Danish study has found there is no increased risk of brain cancer from mobile phone usage.

Researchers at the Danish Cancer Society examined cancer rates in a sample of over 350,000 long-term mobile contract customers, and compared them against a sample of 3.2 million of the general population. There was no increased instance of brain or central nervous system tumours in the phone sample.

The sample included users of the earliest digital mobile phones, which emitted stronger electromagnetic radiation than today’s devices. However the study was criticised for omitting business contract users from the sample. The researchers used operator subscriber data to rule out participation bias and recall bias.

The results were published by the BMJ.

Medical quangos have been drumming up fear of electromagnetic radiation from mobiles for over a decade. The United Nations’ World Health Organisation grabbed headlines in May when it labelled mobile phones in the same category as coffee and carpentry – as an "unproven" possible contributory factor. But it had to overlook its own scientific evidence to do so.

A 10-year study published by WHO last year found lower incidence of two kinds of brain tumour among long-term mobile phone users (relative risk ratios of 0.81 and 0.79) for glioma and meningioma. ®

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