The use of mobile phones is not linked to cancer, according to a new joint Danish-American study. "We found no increased risk of brain tumors, acoustic neuromas, salivary gland tumors, eye tumors, leukemias or overall cancer," report researchers from the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen and the International Epidemiology Institute (IEI) in Rockville, MD. This was the case for both short-term and long-term users. Their results appear in tomorrow's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).
The new study is a follow-up to a 2001 cohort study that also showed no elevated cancer risk. It extends the previous analysis through 2002 and covers 420,095 cell phone accounts, for which the mean use was 8.5 years. The maximum use was for 21 years but that is for a tiny minority of subscribers: As late as 1990 only some 31,000 Danes had signed up for cell phone service. (Corporate accounts were excluded because they could not be linked to individual users.)
The research team advises that their findings "suggest that the use of cellular phones does not pose a substantial risk of brain tumors among short-term or long-term users." They add, however, that "further follow-up [for long-term users] is required."