For as long as we have had mobile phones, controversy has existed regarding the health effects.
Questions have been raised about the impacts of wireless telecommunications, especially with the rollout of each new technology network — starting with 3G and progressing up to 5G.
New Australian-led research, headed by Associate Professor Ken Karipidis, the Health Impact Assessment Assistant Director at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, assessed the quality and strength of the evidence for a causal association between exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) and the risk of developing brain cancers.
The analysis included studies of neoplasia risks in relation to three types of exposure to RF-EMF: near-field, head-localized, exposure from wireless phone use (SR-A); far-field, whole body, environmental exposure from fixed-site transmitters (SR-B); near/far-field occupational exposures from use of hand-held transceivers or RF-emitting equipment in the workplace (SR-C).
“While no restrictions on tumour type were applied, we focused on incidence-based studies of selected “critical” neoplasms of the central nervous system (brain, meninges, pituitary gland, acoustic nerve), salivary gland tumours (SR-A), brain tumours and leukaemia’s (SR-B, SR-C),” Professor Karipidis said.
The literature review included 63 aetiological articles, published between 1994 and 2022, with participants from 22 countries, reporting on 119 different E-O pairs and estimating the meta-estimate of the relative risk (mRR) for each cancer.
RF-EMF exposure from mobile phones (ever or regular use vs no or non-regular use) was not associated with an increased risk of glioma (mRR) = 1.01), meningioma (mRR = 0.92), acoustic neuroma (mRR = 1.03), pituitary tumours (mRR = 0.81), salivary gland tumours (mRR = 0.91), or paediatric (children, adolescents and young adults) brain tumours (mRR = 1.06).
“There was no observable increase in mRRs for the most investigated neoplasms (glioma, meningioma, and acoustic neuroma) with increasing time since start (TSS) use of mobile phones, cumulative call time (CCT), or cumulative number of calls (CNC),” Professor Karipidis said.
“For near field RF-EMF exposure to the head from mobile phone use, there was moderate certainty evidence that it does not increase the risk of glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, pituitary tumours, and salivary gland tumours in adults, or of paediatric brain tumours.
“Similarly, there was moderate certainty evidence that whole-body far-field RF-EMF exposure from fixed-site transmitters (broadcasting antennas or base stations) and occupational RF-EMF exposure does not increase childhood leukaemia risk, and low certainty evidence that it may not increase the risk of paediatric brain tumours.”
However, the team noted that there were no studies eligible for inclusion investigating RF-EMF exposure from fixed-site transmitters and critical tumours in adults, and no studies included on leukemias (the second critical outcome in SR-C) for occupational RF-EMF exposure.
“It is also important to note that the evidence rating regarding paediatric brain tumours in relation to environmental RF exposure from fixed-site transmitters should be interpreted with caution, due to the small number of studies,” Dr Karipidis said.
“Similar interpretative cautions apply to the evidence rating of the relation between glioma/brain cancer and occupational RF exposure, due to differences in exposure sources and metrics across the few included studies.”