United States: Mobile phones are not associated with brain or head cancers, according to a systematic review of the best quality evidence gathered by the World Health Organization.
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The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPSNA) served to lead the systematic review based on over five thousand potentially relevant articles, of which the best were selected, with weak ones being screened out.
According to the review lead author and an associate, prof Ken Karipidis, the final analysis included sixty-three observational studies in humans, which were published from 1994 to 2022, making it “the most comprehensive review to date,” the Guardian reported.
“We concluded the evidence does not show a link between mobile phones and brain cancer or other head and neck cancers,” Karipidis added.
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The review published on Wednesday especially targeted CNS cancers, which include brain, meninges, pituitary gland, and ear cancers, salivary gland tumors, and brain tumors.
The review also revealed that mobile phone use does not increase the risk of cancer either generally or specifically; it is also not a risk where people have been using it for a long time (10 or more years) or the number of calls made on it or time spent on the phone increases the risk of cancer.
Karipidis, who is also Arpansa’s health impact assessment assistant director, said, “I’m quite confident with our conclusion. And what makes us quite confident is … even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumor rates have remained stable,” the Guardian reported.
As per the experts, cell phones, as with anything that utilizes wireless technology, including laptops, radio/television broadcasts, and transmission, and mobile phone transmitting towers dispel radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation or radio waves.
Karipidis, who is also the vice-chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, pointed out that the moment people hear the word radiation, they think of nuclear radiation.
Karipidis said, “And because we use a mobile phone close to the head when we’re making calls, there is a lot of concern.”
“Radiation is basically energy that travels from one point to another. There are many different types, for example, ultraviolet radiation from the sun,” he added.