Review date
18 August 2023
Article publication date
July 2023
Summary
This ecological study evaluates the relationship between incidence and mortality trends of malignant brain tumours and the number of mobile phone users in Taiwan. Data on brain tumour trends and mobile phone use (for the period of 2000–2019) were obtained from the Taiwan Cancer Registry and the National Communications Commission, respectively. The study showed a large increase in mobile phone use over the period whilst the brain tumour and mortality rates have remained stable. The study did not show any significant association between the number of mobile phone users and brain tumour incidences and mortalities over 20 years.
Link to
Incidence and Mortality of Malignant Brain Tumors after 20 Years of Mobile Use
Published In
Cancers
ARPANSA commentary
Consistent to previous studies (Deltour et al., 2022, Elwood et al., 2022) including that conducted in Australia (Karipidis et al., 2018), this study indicates no association between increased number of mobile phone users and brain tumour incidence and/or mortality. Ecological studies despite having their benefits (e.g., low cost and useful in hypothesis generation), offer a limited level of evidence and suffer from the ecological fallacy.
The findings of this study are in line with a recent review conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration on RF-EMF and Cancer. The World Health Organization is currently assessing state-of-the-art evidence on potential human health effects (including brain tumours) of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) such as those associated with mobile phone use in human populations. Based on the current scientific evidence, and consistent with the findings of this study, it is the assessment of ARPANSA that there is no substantiated evidence that RF-EMF exposures at levels below the limits set in the ARPANSA Safety Standard cause any adverse health effects, including cancers in human populations.
