Authored By:
Castano-Vinyals et al.This international case-control study examined the association between wireless (mobile and cordless) phone use in childhood and adolescence and brain tumour risk. The study, called MOBI-Kids, recruited 899 people with brain tumours and 1,910 controls aged 10 to 24 from 14 different countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain). The study reported no statistically significant increase in the risk of brain tumours. The authors did observe a statistically significant decreased risk, however, this was attributed to bias from wrong information reported on mobile use rather than a protective effect. The authors concluded that the study provides no evidence for a causal association between wireless phone use and brain tumours in children and adolescents. However, the authors stated that due to potential bias they could not rule out the possibility of a small increased risk.
Published In:
Environment International, 2022This is the largest case-control study ever to investigate the association between wireless phone use and brain tumours in children and adolescents. The authors’ findings are consistent with previous studies, including the CEFALO study, that also showed no association between the use of wireless phones and brain tumours in children and adolescents. The findings are also consistent with studies reporting no increase in the incidence of brain tumour despite the increased use of mobile phones (e.g. Karipidis et al 2019 and Villeneuve et al 2021).
Overall, this study provides further evidence that there are no substantiated adverse health effects from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic energy from wireless phones where the emissions are below the public exposure limits set in the ARPANSA Standard and the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection’s radiofrequency guidelines.
