Mobile phones relieved as cancer risk?
Researchers from Denmark have not been able to prove that using a mobile phone is associated with an increased risk of cancer. Joachim Schütz from the Cancer Society of Denmark and his colleagues evaluated the state-documented medical histories of 420,095 Danes with mobile phone contracts and thus determined their cancer risk. Most of the participants had been using mobile phones for a few years, but some had been on the phone since 1985.
In terms of the types of cancer in the head, throat and salivary glands that are particularly suspect among mobile phone users, as well as leukemia, there are no differences to the average for the Danish population in either women or men.
Overall, compared to the general population, there is even a statistically slightly reduced risk of developing cancer among men who use mobile phones. According to the authors, this can be explained by the reduced incidence of cancer cases associated with tobacco consumption in the group of participants. The study participants, who were recruited from a nationwide list of telephone companies since 1985, had a higher basic income than the average population and thus a higher socio-economic status. According to the authors, the proportion of smokers and thus tobacco-related cancers correlates with this status in men, but not in women.
The authors point out possible weaknesses of their study: On the one hand, it is not certain how long the individual participants had actually been on the phone. However, in a separate survey of 822 of all study participants, the authors determined that 60 percent of them described themselves as "frequent" mobile phone users who make at least one call per week. According to statistics from mobile phone providers, the actual usage time is usually well above the self-assessment of the participants, according to the authors.
Schütz and Co also point out that no reliable trend can be derived from their study about a possibly increasing cancer risk with long-term use of mobile phones for more than ten years. Although a total of more than 11,000 people had been registered with a mobile phone provider for more than 15 years and some even for 21 years, there is still too little meaningful medical data available from these test participants to allow statistically relevant statements over a long period of time.
