September 11, 2024 – A major new analysis has found no connection between cell phone use and brain cancer.
For the analysis, commissioned by the World Health Organization, researchers reviewed 63 studies. They didn’t find any evidence that increased exposure to the type of radiation emitted from cell phones and other wireless electronics—non-ionizing radiation—causes brain cancer, even among people who spend many hours each day on their phones.
Over the past couple of decades, with billions of people around the world using cell phones, experts had worried that even a small link between cell phone use and brain cancer would lead to increased rates of the disease, according to a September 6 article in Everyday Health. But rates have declined.
Timothy Rebbeck, Vincent L. Gregory, Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention—who was not involved in the study—said in the article, “This review really confirms what we have known for quite a while about the effects of non-ionizing radiation from cell phones and similar sources. I think it’s clear at this point that cancer risks are not elevated from these exposures.”
Rebbeck was also quoted about the new analysis in a September 7 CNET article.
Read the Everyday Health article: Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer? A Major New Analysis Says No
Read the CNET article: Large WHO-Backed Study Revives Cell Phone and Cancer Risk Conversation
Photo: iStock/PabloBenitezLope