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Cancer & Tumors115 citations

Mobile phone use and incidence of glioma in the Nordic countries 1979-2008: consistency check.

No Effects Found

Deltour I, Auvinen A, Feychting M, Johansen C, Klaeboe L, Sankila R, Schüz J. · 2012

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Thirty years of brain cancer data shows no population-level increases matching the dramatic mobile phone risks reported in some studies.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers analyzed brain tumor rates across Nordic countries from 1979-2008 to see if mobile phone use caused increases in glioma (a type of brain cancer). Despite widespread mobile phone adoption during this period, they found no significant increase in brain tumor rates that would match the elevated risks reported in some earlier studies. The findings suggest that either mobile phones pose lower cancer risks than some studies indicated, or that cancer development takes longer than the timeframes studied so far.

Why This Matters

This population-level analysis provides crucial context for understanding mobile phone cancer risks. While some case-control studies have reported doubled or tripled glioma risks from mobile phone use, this study shows that such dramatic increases haven't materialized in actual cancer registries across entire populations. The science demonstrates that if mobile phones caused the level of risk suggested by some studies, we should have seen clear increases in brain cancer rates by now, especially among middle-aged men who were early adopters. What this means for you is that the most alarming findings from individual studies may not reflect real-world population risks. However, the researchers acknowledge this doesn't rule out longer latency periods or more modest risk increases that might not yet be detectable in population data.

Study Details

We investigated glioma IR trends in the Nordic countries, and compared the observed with expected incidence rates under various risk scenarios.

We analyzed annual age-standardized incidence rates in men and women aged 20 to 79 years during 1979...

For the period 1979 through 2008, the annual percent change in incidence rates was 0.4% (95% confide...

No clear trend change in glioma incidence rates was observed. Several of the risk increases seen in case-control studies appear to be incompatible with the observed lack of incidence rate increase in middle-aged men. This suggests longer induction periods than currently investigated, lower risks than reported from some case-control studies, or the absence of any association.

Cite This Study
Deltour I, Auvinen A, Feychting M, Johansen C, Klaeboe L, Sankila R, Schüz J. (2012). Mobile phone use and incidence of glioma in the Nordic countries 1979-2008: consistency check. Epidemiology. 23(2):301-307, 2012.
Show BibTeX
@article{i_2012_mobile_phone_use_and_3002,
  author = {Deltour I and Auvinen A and Feychting M and Johansen C and Klaeboe L and Sankila R and Schüz J.},
  title = {Mobile phone use and incidence of glioma in the Nordic countries 1979-2008: consistency check.},
  year = {2012},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22249239/},
}
PubMed: 22249239

Cited By (115 papers)

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Quick Questions About This Study

No, brain cancer rates in Nordic countries showed no significant increases during widespread mobile phone adoption from 1979-2008. Annual glioma incidence increased only 0.4% in men and 0.3% in women, far below what some earlier case-control studies suggested mobile phone use might cause.
This Nordic population study suggests many case-control studies may have overestimated mobile phone brain cancer risks. The researchers found that risk increases of 1.5-2.0 times reported in some studies were incompatible with actual brain tumor rates observed across entire populations over 30 years.
Three possible explanations exist: mobile phones pose lower cancer risks than some studies reported, cancer development takes longer than the 30-year timeframe studied, or there's no association between mobile phone use and brain tumors. Population-wide data shows no clear trend changes in glioma rates.
No, brain cancer rates remained stable in middle-aged men (40-59 years) throughout the entire 30-year Nordic study period despite widespread mobile phone adoption. This contradicts several case-control studies that suggested elevated risks in this age group from mobile phone use.
If mobile phones do cause brain cancer, development may take longer than currently studied timeframes. This Nordic analysis found that even assuming cancer develops within 5-15 years of mobile phone use, the predicted tumor increases don't match actual population cancer rates observed.