No increase in brain tumours in the Nordic countries
The incidence of glioma - the most common form of brain tumour - is not increasing in the Nordic countries, contradicting the claim that mobile phone use is a cause of the disease. This according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the scientific journal Epidemiology.
The analyses presented by the researchers also show that the increased risks previously reported to be associated with mobile telephony in a few individual studies should have been observable in the general cancer statistics if mobile phone use had indeed been associated with a true risk increase.
"People living in the Nordic countries were quick to adopt mobile phone technology and mobile phones have been used by a very large percentage of the population," says Professor Maria Feychting of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. "All Nordic countries have cancer registries of a very high quality, which provide excellent opportunities for studying changes in the incidence of brain tumours."
The present study shows that there has been no increase in glioma in the Nordic countries since the introduction of mobile phones, and that the risk increases reported in a few individual studies are inconsistent with the cancer statistics. The paper is an update of a previous study on the incidence of glioma in the Nordic countries. The analyses now cover the years up to 2008 and still show no sign of an increase in the disease in the age groups that have been using mobile phones.