Cellphone not linked to brain cancer risk

MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Cellphone use does not appear to increase the risk of developing brain tumors by any significant amount, researchers in Britain say.

Lead researcher Dr. Frank de Vocht of the University of Manchester and colleagues used data from the Office of National Statistics to look at trends in rates of newly diagnosed brain cancers in England from 1998 to 2007 -- to related to the period 1990 to 2002 when British cellphone use increased from 0 percent to 65 percent of households.

The study, published in the journal Bioelectromagnetics, reported no statistically significant change in the incidence of brain cancers -- if there was a slight increase in tumor incidence caused by cellphone use, it would contribute to less than one additional case per 100,000 population in a decade.

"There is an ongoing controversy about whether radio-frequency exposure from cellphones increases the risk of brain cancer," de Vocht says in a statement.

"Our findings indicate that a causal link between cellphone use and cancer is unlikely because there is no evidence of any significant increase in the disease since their introduction and rapid proliferation."