Cell Phones - Are We Micro-Waving Our Brain?
A newly released study of the connection between cellphone use and brain health is raising more questions than answers to this controversial matter.
The report is called Interphone, a series of multi-national case-control studies to assess the possible health effects of exposure to radio frequency (RF) fields and whether mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer.
The study focused on tumours arising in the tissues most exposed to RF fields from mobile phones: glioma, meningioma, acoustic neurinoma and parotid gland tumours. In addition to a detailed history of mobile phone use, information was collected on a number of known and potential risk factors for these tumours.
The study results, published in The International Journal of Epidemiology, waited four years to be released, due to a disagreement between the researchers over how to present the results. The final paper shows no distinctive link between cellphone use and brain tumors. However, the investigators report that study participants with the highest level of cellphone use had a 40 percent higher risk for a type of brain tumor called a glioma. That risk, though, is discounted because of potential “biases and errors” that “prevent a causal interpretation,” said the investigators.
