Health Council of the Netherlands Report on Mobile Phones and Brain Cancer
The Electromagnetic Fields Committee of the Health Council of the Netherlands (HCN) has published a new advisory report on mobile phones and brain cancer.
The HCN report concludes:
The present systematic analysis shows that, despite large research efforts, there is still no clarity regarding a possible association between mobile phone use and an increased risk of tumours in the brain and other regions of the head.
There are some weak and inconsistent indications for an association between prolonged and intensive use of a mobile phone and an increased incidence of gliomas. These might be explained by various types of bias and by chance, but it can also not be excluded that there is a causal relation.
For the other types of tumours, including meningiomas and acoustic neuromas, indications for an increased risk are much weaker or completely absent.
Based on the available epidemiological evidence described in this report and taking into account the quality of the different studies and their strengths and weaknesses, the final conclusion from this systematic analysis is then: there is no clear and consistent evidence for an increased risk for tumours in the brain and other regions in the head in association with up to approximately 13 years use of a mobile telephone, but such risk can also not be excluded. It is not possible to pronounce upon longer term use.