The largest review of research in 28 years, conducted by the World Health Organization, found no link between mobile phone use and the development of brain cancer. Scientists analyzed 63 independent studies conducted in different countries around the world from 1994 to 2022.
The authors assessed the effects of smartphones, Wi-Fi networks, mobile base stations, radio transmitters, and other sources of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. No increased risk of tumors was found even among people who used mobile communications especially intensively: talked on the phone for many hours, accumulated more than 800 hours of calls, or used mobile devices for 10–15 years. The analysis also did not confirm a link between living near cell towers and childhood leukemia.
The researchers note that radio waves are non-ionizing radiation. Their energy is not sufficient to damage DNA, unlike X-rays or gamma radiation. Additional support for the findings comes from global statistics: despite the rise in the number of mobile phone users to billions of people, brain cancer incidence rates have remained stable over the past decades.
