The debate that has raged on about a link between cell phones and cancer took a brand new turn on December 3, 2009.
A short article published online that day in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute released findings from an exhaustive 30-year Scandinavian study that showed
no link between cellphone use and brain tumors among adults.
Researchers found that even though mobile telephone use soared beginning in the 1990s that brain tumors did not become any more common afterwards.
"We did not detect any clear change in the long-term trends in the incidence of brain tumors from 1998 to 2003 in any subgroup," wrote Isabelle Deltour, lead researcher of the report from the Danish Cancer Society.
Deltour said that five year period ending in 2003 would have been when tumors would start to show up, "assuming it took five to 10 years for one to develop."
Deltour and her colleagues studied incidence rates of two types of cancer (glioma and meningioma) among adults aged 20 to 79 from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden from 1974 to 2003.
Over those 30 years, 60,000 patients were diagnosed with brain tumors. Deltour's group reported a small, steady increase in brain tumors during that time, but that started in 1974 -- long before cell phones ever existed.
In effect, the study analyzed virtually the entire Scandanavian adult population of 16 million people, as the countries have good cancer registries that keep a tally of known cancers. Additionally, the countries studied were all places where cellphone usage is considered to be high.
The study concluded that during those 30 years, the incidence rate of glioma increased by 0.5 percent per year among men and by 0.2 percent per year among women -- considered to be highly stable, scientifically speaking. The study strictly examined incidence rates, not individual cell phone usage.
"The (cause) of brain tumors is poorly understood,"
Deltour's research concluded. "The only well-established risk factors -- ionizing radiation and rare hereditary syndromes -- account for a small proportion of brain tumor cases."
The report seems to affirm similar findings last year by other French and Norwegian researchers who did not find a connection between mobile phones and cancer.
Still, the study drew harsh criticism from Lloyd Morgan, the lead author of the recently-issued report
Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern.
In an email (sent to this publication), Morgan characterized the study as "flawed," and "outrageous."
Referring to the window of time that the study bases its findings on, Morgan said, "The authors know that no solid tumors, particularly brain tumors, have such a short latency time."
Morgan pointed to Deltour's concession that it is possible that it takes longer than 10 years for tumors caused by mobile phones to turn up. (The study group led by Deltour also said, however, that it is just as possible that cellphones do not cause brain tumors.)
"The induction period is at least 30 years and these authors know this," Morgan countered in his email.
Morgan also apparently questioned the study's bias as it was funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council. Morgan noted that the Danish Strategic Research Council lists among its goals "commercialization of research," and "interaction between knowledge institutions and the business community."
Morgan said his own report provides "a thorough review of what anyone in the media needs to know if they intend to write reports about the cellphones and brain tumors."
The ongoing debate is expected to get fresh legs anew very soon: The World Health Organization is reportedly set to release results of a long-term study that does show a link between cell-phone use and brain cancer.
In the wake of the Morgan report, which was released in August 2009, lawmakers on Capitol Hill held hearings on the cell-phone issue, but it has been speculated that the legislative focus on overhauling the nation's health care coverage will forestall any thorough U.S. investigation into cell phones and cancer anytime soon.
