Is cell phone radiation harmful to health and can it even cause cancer? A large long-term study in the UK involving hundreds of thousands of women finds that using cell phones does not increase the risk of developing a brain tumour.
According to a large long-term study, cell phone use does not increase the risk of brain tumors. An analysis of the “UK Million Women Study”, which has been running in Great Britain for more than 20 years, found no evidence of an increased risk of tumors with normal use of mobile phones. This is reported by a team led by Joachim Schüz from the International Cancer Research Agency (IARC) in Lyon in the “Journal of the National Cancer Institute”.
In the study, which began in 1996, hundreds of thousands of women answered questions about their cell phone use, first in 2001 and again in 2011. A total of 1.3 million women born between 1935 and 1950 were included in the study. Of the almost 800,000 women who completed the first questionnaire, almost 3,300 later developed a brain tumor. It didn’t matter since when and how often the women had used a cell phone.
Since mobile phones, unlike other electronic devices, are used close to the head, questions about possible health risks arose years ago. The German Society for Neurology informed the study that mobile phone radiation is not enough to damage the genetic material in the cell nuclei and cause cancer. The phone’s energy is also not enough to increase body temperature, for example.
The authors of the study point out that the radiation has decreased significantly with ever newer cell phone generations. Today, even with excessive use, one is probably exposed to the same amount as with moderate use of mobile phones of the first two generations.
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) points out on its website that, based on current scientific knowledge, the internationally specified maximum values ??are sufficient to protect against health risks. However, there are still uncertainties in the risk assessment.
