Are cellphones a risk for cancer? Not likely, report says.
Whether you’re an Android or iPhone user – or kick it old-school with a traditional flip phone – there's good news about the impact of your favorite mobile device on your health: a review commissioned by the World Health Organization found cellphones do not increase the risk of brain cancer.
Researchers looked at more than 5,000 studies published between 1994 and 2022, focusing on 63 articles that included participants from 22 countries, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Environment International. They found exposure to cellphones, cordless phones and broadcasting stations was unlikely to cause brain cancer.
“Almost everyone I know has a cellphone,” said Dr. Manmeet Ahluwalia, chief scientific officer, chief of medical oncology, and deputy director at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute, who said the link to brain cancer is a "genuine concern" for some of his patients.
How do mobile phones work?
Cellphones send and receive signals from towers using radio frequency waves, which the Food and Drug Administration defines as a form of radiation.
These waves are considered non-ionizing radiation, which means they are low frequency and low energy, according to the American Cancer Society. In contrast, ionizing radiation that is high frequency and high energy – like x-rays or radon – can cause DNA damage and lead to cancer.
Given the widespread use of cellphones, Ahluwalia said, even the slightest risk of cancer would be concerning to many patients, particularly if there were a link to cancer of the head and neck area where people hold their phones. But there is not, the researchers found.
The FDA said the “available scientific data show no categorical proof of any adverse biological effects” from radio frequency energy. The recent WHO study builds on this existing evidence.
What the research shows
The eleven researchers who authored the WHO review said it’s unlikely cellphone use increases the risk of glioma, a tumor in the brain or spinal cord.
The researchers also found that cellphones did not increase the risk of noncancerous tumors like meningioma and acoustic neuroma. Meningioma occurs in the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord and acoustic neuroma affects the nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Cellphones also did not increase the risk of tumors outside the brain, specifically pituitary tumors and salivary gland tumors in adults, nor did they increase the risk of brain cancer in children.
Researchers concluded that exposure to cordless phones and fixed-site transmitters, like broadcasting antennas or base stations that serve as hubs for local wireless networks, is also unlikely to increase the risk of cancer.
Previous large studies have also shown cellphones were unlikely to cause brain cancer, but Ahluwalia said that the advantage of the WHO review was that it looked at all the studies together and ruled out any possible biases.
"We depend so much on cellphones for our day-to-day use," Ahluwalia said. "Studies like this give us more comfort that cellphone use is not associated with the risk of brain tumors.”
Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.