The risk of brain tumours has not changed
significantly through increased mobile phone usage, according to new research
by the University of Auckland. The Australian Mobile Telecommunications
Association highlighted the finding on its website, citing a paper published in
the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health on trends in primary
brain cancer instances in New Zealand between 1995 and 2010.
The research,
which was carried out by epidemiologist professor Mark Elwood, found no general
increase in brain tumours. Elwood said there had been concerns about whether
the use of mobile phones could lead to rise in the occurrence of brain tumours.
His team examined the yearly incidence of brain cancers, both in total and in
those sub-types highlighted in some other studies, in New Zealand from 1995 to
2010, using data from the New Zealand national cancer registry. “There has been
no general increase,” said Elwood. “In fact, for the wide age range 10 to 69
years, there has been a decrease of about one percent per year.”
