It has been a myth that has accompanied the use of mobile phones for decades and now it is completely debunked. A macro study that the World Health OrganizationWHO, commissioned scientists from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency in 2019 and which has just been published has concluded that everyday use of smartphones does not increase the risk of cancer in users.
The team led by Ken Karipidisassociate professor at the aforementioned agency, has pointed out that ‘Evidence from human studies does not show that cell phones or other wireless devices cause cancer.. Although mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain cancer rates have remained fairly stable. (…) It is important that we continue our research. However, we can be fairly certain that there is no association between mobile phone use and brain tumors. Exposure to radio waves from wireless technology is not a danger to human health‘, as reported by The Telegraph.
The study is the most comprehensive to date and covers data from 147 investigations carried out over the last three decades in 22 countries. The researchers began with a number around 5,000 which was screened down to 147. Reasons for exclusion range from duplicate studies, more than 1,000, to ineligibility or retracted publications, among others.
Concern about the possible carcinogenic effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields from mobile radio waves was reinforced in 2013. Then, the International Agency for Research on CancerIARC, for its acronym in English, said that Electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones could ‘possibly’ cause cancer after some studies suggested that tumors were more likely in those who used their mobile phones frequently.
According to researchers from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, that research It was biased and used reports from users who were looking for a reason for the tumors they were suffering from.. Even back then, IARC said the evidence was not conclusive enough and further research was needed.
The truth is that studies conducted since then have not found that people who have used such devices regularly for more than 10 years are at greater risk than those who have used them for a very short time. ‘On the main issue, mobile phones and brain cancers, We did not find any increased risk, even with more than 10 years of exposure and in the maximum call time or number of calls categories. We also evaluated 13 studies from 12 countries, studying whether more brain cancers occurred in recent years, along with increased mobile phone use. These studies did not show significant increasesSimilarly, we found no increased risks of Leukemia or brain cancers in children “in relation to radio or TV transmitters or mobile phone base stations. We also found no increased risk of brain cancers with occupational exposures in the manufacture or operation of equipment,” he explained. Mark Elwoodprofessor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Auckland and co-author of the study.
This addresses the relationship between mobile phones and various types of cancer, including: those of the brain, the pituitary gland, the salivary glands and leukemiasHowever, the research team also notes that it cannot rule out other health effects of mobile phones.