No link between cell phones and brain cancer, European study says

The results of a recent European study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded that there is no connection between cell phone use and an increased risk of brain cancer, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. There were 1,000 participants in the study, including 352 people aged seven to nineteen who were diagnosed with a brain tumor between 2004 and 2008. The report “shows that a large and immediate risk of cellphones causing brain tumors in children can be excluded,” Dr. Martin Roosli, an epidemiologist at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute said. The results are in contradiction of a recent World Health Organization study, which said that cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic.” However, the WHO report was shot down immediately by the Economist, which said it was not possible for cell phone radio waves to cause cells to mutate, and a second report in Environmental Health Perspectives that argued there is evidence “increasingly against the hypothesis that mobile phone use can cause brain tumors in adults.” One World Health Organization cancer epidemiologist, Kurt Straif, told The Wall Street Journal that the results from the latest survey may not be 100% accurate. “Participants with brain cancer may not have the best recall for how often they used their phones,” he argued.