No link between mobile phones and brain cancer: WHO-backed study

There is no link between mobile phone use and an increased risk of brain cancer, according to a new World Health Organization-commissioned review of available published evidence worldwide.

Despite the huge rise in the use of wireless technology, there has not been a corresponding increase in the incidence of brain cancers, the review, published on Tuesday, found. That applies even to people who make long phone calls or those who have used mobile phones for more than a decade.

The final analysis included 63 studies from 1994-2022, assessed by 11 investigators from 10 countries, including the Australian government's radiation protection authority.

The work assessed the effects of radiofrequency, used in mobile phones as well as TV, baby monitors and radar, co-author Mark Elwood, professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said.

"None of the major questions studied showed increased risks," he said. The review looked at cancers of the brain in adults and children, as well as cancer of the pituitary gland, salivary glands and leukemia, and risks linked to mobile phone use, base stations, or transmitters, as well as occupational exposure. Other cancer types will be reported separately.

The review follows other similar work. The WHO and other international health bodies have said previously there is no definitive evidence of adverse health effects from the radiation used by mobile phones, but called for more research. It is currently classified as "possibly carcinogenic", or class 2B, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a category used when the agency cannot rule out a potential link.

The agency's advisory group has called for the classification to be re-evaluated as soon as possible given the new data since its last assessment in 2011.

WHO's evaluation will be released in the first quarter of next year.