Health and Safety Information 155
Research Results to Date: Is there a connection
between RF and certain health problems?
The results of most studies conducted to date say no.
In addition, attempts to replicate and confirm the few
studies that have shown a connection have failed.
The scientific community at large therefore believes
that the weight of scientific evidence does not show
an association between exposure to Radio Frequency
(RF) from cell phones and adverse health outcomes.
Still the scientific community has supported
additional research to address gaps in knowledge.
Some of these studies are described below.
Interphone Study
Interphone is a large international study designed to
determine whether cell phones increase the risk of
head and neck cancer. A report published in the
International Journal of Epidemiology (June, 2010)
compared cell phone usage for more than 5,000
people with brain tumors (glioma and meningioma)
and a similar number of healthy controls.
Results of this study did NOT show that cell phones
caused brain cancer. In this study, most people had
no increased risk of brain cancer from using cell
phones. For people with the heaviest use of cell
phones (an average of more than ½ hour per day,
every day, for over 10 years) the study suggested a
slight increase in brain cancer. However, the authors
determined that biases and errors prevented any
conclusions being drawn from this data. Additional
information about Interphone can be found at
http://com.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/.
Interphone is the largest cell phone study to date, but
it did not answer all questions about cell phone
safety. Additional research is being conducted around
the world, and the FDA continues to monitor
developments in this field.
International Cohort Study on Mobile Phone Users
(COSMOS)
The COSMOS study aims to conduct long-term health
monitoring of a large group of people to determine if
there are any health issues linked to long-term
exposure to radio frequency energy from cell phone
use. The COSMOS study will follow approximately
300,000 adult cell phone users in Europe for 20 to 30
years. Additional information about the COSMOS
study can be found at
http://www.ukcosmos.org/
index.html
.
Risk of Brain Cancer from Exposure to Radio
Frequency Fields in Childhood and Adolescence
(MOBI-KIDS)
MOBI-KIDS is an international study investigating the
relationship between exposure to radio frequency
energy from communication technologies including
cell phones and brain cancer in young people. This is
an international multi-center study involving 14
European and non-European countries. Additional
information about MOBI-KIDS can be found at
http://www.creal.cat/programes-recerca/en_projectes-
creal/view.php?ID=39.
