No link between mobile phones and malicious brain tumour found in analysis of a 30 year data set from Nordic countries

Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority STUK has released a statement concerning a study of the incidence of gliomas in 20-79 year old men in the Nordic countries from 1979 to 2008. The results were published in Epidemiology- magazine two days ago. There is a constant slightly increasing trend in the amount of the malicious brain tumours in question across the entire study period but no deviation from the trend was shown since the introduction of mobile phones.

The researchers position that should there be an increased risk for a brain tumour as a result of using mobile phones, the effects should be shown in increased incidence among the entire population once sufficient number of people have been using cell-phone for at least 10-15 years. The study compared null hypothesis with 1,5,10 and 15 year intervals. The notice says that the study was powered in a way that even 1.2 times greater risk to get a brain tumour from using mobile phones would become evident from the data.

Some studies have previously linked mobile phones and brain cancers. The researchers presume these results might be caused by bias such as memory lapses. The study was done in cooperation with various international bodies such as WHO representatives, Karolinska Institutet and Cancer Registries in Denmark, Norway and Finland. Nordic countries were frontrunners in introducing mobile phones with companies such as Ericsson and Nokia leading the way.