Health and Safety Information 159
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://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2010/pdfs/pr200_E.pdf.
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.
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)
Program of the National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) actively follows cancer
statistics in the United States to detect any change in rates of
new cases for brain cancer. If cell phones play a role in risk
for brain cancer, rates should go up, because heavy cell
phone use has been common for quite some time in the U.S.
Between 1987 and 2005, the overall age-adjusted incidence
of brain cancer did not increase. Additional information about
SEER can be found at
http://seer.cancer.gov/
.
