10-year cell phone study shows no definitive brain tumor link

Confused about whether your cell phone is bad for you? You're not alone. Despite many studies into the possible link between cell phones and brain cancer, none have yielded a definitive conclusion either way. A few months ago, it was reported that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization, may have found a link after a decade-long study on mobile phone use and brain cancer risk, but it turns out the results are also inconclusive. The study's findings have been released to the International Journal of Epidemiology, and indicate "no definitive link." However, "further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited," says Dr. Christopher Wild, Director of IARC.

Why is further study needed? In short, because cell phone use has grown and changed so much in the last decade.  According to Interphone's report, the median usage by study subjects was just 2 to 2.5 hours per month; the heaviest users averaged about a half-hour per day. Today, cell phones are much more a part of everyday life and "it is not unusual for young people to use mobile phones for an hour or more a day." Scientists are particularly concerned with cell phone use among children.

The head of the Interphone study, Professor Elisabeth Cardis, said that "because of concerns about the rapid increase in mobile phone use in young people," a new project called MobiKids will "investigate the risk of brain tumours from mobile phone use in childhood and adolescence." That group was not covered by the Interphone study, an exclusion that its critics have pointed out.