Cell Phone Use Does Not Cause Cancer, New Study Indicates

By Emma Koonse, Christian Post Reporter Monday, October 24, 2011

The largest-ever study on cancer and cell phone use has revealed that there is little reason to believe cellular devices create higher risk for the disease.

Over 350,000 Danish cell phone subscribers were observed in the study, which found that subscribers of 13 years or more have the same proneness to cancer as non-subscribers. Paid for by the nation’s governmental Strategic Research Council, the study was published Thursday in the British Medical Journal, and offers cell phone users relief.

Co-author of the study, Patrizia Frei of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, Denmark, said, “Our study provides little evidence for a casual association, but we cannot rule out a small to moderate increase in risk for subgroups of heavy users.”

For years, there has been great concern around cell phone use and health, and a separate study last year also found no clear connection between cancer and phones. The study did not rule out a connection between glioma - a rare deadly brain tumor - and heavy phone use. Nonetheless, the number of heavy phone users was not enough to make the case.

Last year’s study led the International Agency for Research on Cancer to deem cell phones “possibly carcinogenic,” along with substances such as coffee and gasoline. The issue sparked widespread fear in the more than 5 million cell phone users in the world.

Although U.S. agencies the Federal Communications Commission nor the Food and Drug Administration have found evidence linking cancer to cell phones, and cancer rates have not increased since the introduction of cell phones, fear of cancer persists.

Fear of cancer via cell phone in children is warranted, as ABC News reports Frei saying that the case of cell phones and cancer is not completely closed.

“We didn’t have any information on the amount of use, so we couldn’t do any sub-analysis on people with heavy phone use,” said the Danish author of the study. “There are still some open questions, about greater amounts of use, and about the effects on children.”

Speaking to The Christian Post, cancer survivor and fifth-year medical student Ben McCormack said he does not believe in a correlation between cell phones and cancer.

“Data sometimes does show a possible relationship between cell phones and brain cancer, but it’s always weak and insufficient,” said McCormack, who recovered from leukemia as a child.