People who call a lot may not have a greater risk of developing brain tumors, according to a new study.
- According to a new study, there is no link between cell phone use and the risk of brain tumors.
- The risk of developing a tumor was almost the same in the 10% of people who spent a lot of time on cell phones as in the others.
- The risk was not higher among those who had had a cell phone for a very long time.
This is good news for those who like to spend hours on the phone! According to a new study published in the journal Environment Internationalthere would be no link between cell phone use and the risk of brain tumors.
Similar risks of developing a brain tumor
The researchers used data from the international COSMOS study, started 20 years ago and which aims to measure the impact of mobile phones on health. Thus, between 2007 and 2013, 250,000 users from five countries (Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) answered detailed questions about their use of mobile phones. These did not have tumors at the start of the study, and were followed for several years.
“The results show that those [les utilisateurs] who called the longest [durant leur vie] from a cell phone do not have a higher risk of developing a brain tumor than others“, explains Maria Feychting, author of the study, in a communicated.
In detail, the risk of developing a tumor was almost the same in the 10% of people who spent the most time on cell phones as in the others. Additionally, those who had been using it for a long time – more than 15 years before answering the COSMOS questionnaire – did not have a higher risk either.
An absence of risk to be confirmed
In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO), classified “radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on an increased risk of glioma, a type of malignant brain cancer, associated with wireless telephone use”, can we read in this communicated. However, cell phone use was assessed through participant self-reports. However, the responses of those with tumors could be distorted by the disease, according to COSMOS scientists.
“Cell phone technology is constantly evolving and some of the tumors we studied are very rare, concludes Maria Feychting. Therefore, we will continue to follow the participants in the COSMOS study so that we can draw definitive conclusions about possible long-term risks.”
A reassuring study but the results of which must be confirmed in the years to come.
