A study commissioned by the WHO found no link between even prolonged exposure to mobile phones and an increased risk of brain cancer.
While there are rules regarding the emission of waves for most connected devices, no link has been established between the use of a telephone and brain cancers. This is the conclusion of a study commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), and revealed by the Washington Post.
Eleven experts from ten countries were commissioned to study 5,000 scientific studies over several decades, published between 1994 and 2022, and find a conclusion on a particularly “hot” and controversial subject, explains the American daily. Finally, 63 studies, deemed particularly relevant, were studied closely.
According to the conclusion reached by these experts, there is no link between brain tumors and cancers and increased exposure to radio frequencies (or waves) used by wireless electronic devices, including smartphones.
The risk does not increase even with “prolonged” use of more than ten years in a population that uses its mobile phone very often or makes many calls. The researchers also did not find any links causing an increased risk of leukemia in children exposed to radio or television transmitters, or to mobile phone antennas.
Results deemed “reassuring”
One of the authors of the report, Ken Karipidis, explained that these results were considered “reassuring”: “There has been no increase in the incidence linked to brain tumours,” explained the man who notably worked for the Australian authority in charge of protection against radiation and nuclear power.
The issue of waves emanating from smartphones is a sensitive subject. The WHO has classified them as “possibly carcinogenic” to humans since 2011 on the basis of observational, but limited, studies. As specified in the Washington Postthese waves are in the same category as talc or aloe vera, where cigarette smoke is classified as a “certain carcinogen”.
Ken Karipidis explains that since 2011, “many more studies” have been published, allowing this more reassuring conclusion to be drawn. The researcher points to early studies based on case-controls where the responses of people with brain cancer were compared with those of healthy people, which biased the final result: “A person with a brain tumor wants to know why they are a victim of it and tends to overestimate their exposure.” Additional studies have shown that there was no possible “association” between the two.
The findings also add that mobile phone antennas, which are being installed en masse around the world to enable 4G and 5G, do not pose an increased risk of cancer either. Compared to previous technologies, the latest generation networks emit with “significantly lower” power.
On the contrary, having more antennas around you helps reduce the amount of radiation emitted by a smartphone, which does not have to constantly search for a network to connect to it.
As a precautionary measure, it is still possible to use your smartphone while limiting exposure to waves as much as possible, with a few simple reflexes. Anti-wave accessories – such as patches to stick on your mobile – are, however, of no use.
