Cosmos study with 265,000 participants finds no connection between head tumors and cell phone use
Vienna (OTS) – The results of the “Cosmos study” were presented these days. This is a multinational, prospective cohort study to clarify the question of whether the use of mobile phones can have health consequences, specifically the development of head tumors.
Cell phone use has nothing to do with head tumors
The analysis of around 265,000 participants showed, quote, “no evidence of an increased risk of gliomas, meningiomas or acoustic neuromas” from making phone calls with mobile devices. What’s more, it suggests “that the amount of cell phone use is not associated with the risk of brain tumors.”
Cosmos study design takes previous errors into account
Previous cohort studies have been inadequate in that only limited conclusions about actual cell phone use could be drawn due to recall biases and rough exposure estimates. The design of the Cosmos cohort study was developed in such a way that these shortcomings could be largely compensated for.
The Cosmos study has involved participants from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom since 2007 with a questionnaire about cell phone use. The exactly 264,574 participants accumulated a total of 1,836,479 person-years.
Participants were followed through population-based cancer registries to identify glioma, meningioma, and acoustic neuroma cases. The non-differentiated exposure estimation was reduced using regression calibration methods.
During a median follow-up of 7.12 years, 149 glioma, 89 meningioma, and 29 acoustic neuroma cases were diagnosed. This showed that over a period of 15 years of cell phone use, no increased risk of tumors was detectable through the use of cell phones and smartphones.
