Over the years, the medical terrain has witnessed several health risks associated with using cell phones. Well, the risk for developing brain cancer may not be related to the frequency of mobile phone usage. A latest study undertaken by the University of Manchester suggests that radio frequency exposure from mobile phone has no impact on the chances of being diagnosed with brain cancer.
As a part of the investigation, scientists scrutinized data from the UK Office of National Statistics. It provided information on the rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England between 1998 and 2007. No statistically significant change in brain cancer rates appeared among both men and women. Radio frequency exposure from mobile phones and its impact on brain cancer development has always remained as a controversial topic in the health zone. However, the current study was unable to register any dramatic increase in disease occurrence.
“It is very unlikely that we are at the forefront of a brain cancer epidemic related to mobile phones, as some have suggested, although we did observe a small increased rate of brain cancers in the temporal lobe corresponding to the time period when mobile phone use rose from zero to 65 percent of households. However, to put this into perspective, if this specific rise in tumor incidence was caused by mobile phone use, it would contribute to less than one additional case per 100,000 population in a decade. We cannot exclude the possibility that there are people who are susceptible to radio-frequency exposure or that some rare brain cancers are associated with it but we interpret our data as not indicating a pressing need to implement public health measures to reduce radio-frequency exposure from mobile phones,” added Dr de Vocht.
Authors found a small raise in the incidence of cancers within the temporal lobe of 0.6 cases per 100,000 people or 31 extra cases per year among a population of 52 million. Brain cancers of the parietal lobe, cerebrum and cerebellum in men probably declined between 1998 and 2007. It was pointed out that there is no plausible biological mechanism for radio waves to damage the genes directly thereby causing cells to become cancerous. Hence, radio frequency exposure does not seem to promote brain cancer.
The study is published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics.