The latest volley in the never-ending discussion on mobile phone-related cancer clears our beloved phones of any role in brain tumours, at least those found in children and teenagers.
Martin Roosli of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel surveyed 1000 young people (age 7-19) in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Sadly, 352 of the subjects had a brain tumour and 646 were healthy controls from the same demographics as the test group.
The research team analysed the survey data and couldn’t find any link between mobile phone usage and brain tumours. They also could not find any increase in tumours that were located in areas of the head receiving the largest amount of exposure. The researchers do note that these results may be influenced by the usage patterns of teens and tweens who’ll text until their fingers fall off, but rarely make phone calls.
Nonetheless, you can file this study in the “pro” column and keep using those mobile phones with reckless abandon. That is until the next study comes out and says we’re all doomed. [WSJ]