Time trends in mobile phone use and glioma incidence among males in the Nordic countries, 1979–2016

A new study, conducted by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partners from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center and Rigshospitalet (Denmark), Tampere University and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Finland), the Cancer Registry of Norway, and the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), provides information on time trends in glioma incidence rates among men in these countries in 1979–2016. The results were published in the journal Environment International.

In the Nordic countries, the use of mobile phones increased sharply in the mid-1990s, especially among middle-aged men. The incidence rates of glioma recorded in these countries followed long-term trends of small, gradual increases; no modifications of these trends were observed between 1979 and 2016. This observation is compatible with the absence of any measurable impact of mobile phone use on risk of glioma, for the technologies used in the past and at the exposure levels encountered at that time.

To distinguish random fluctuations in incidence rates from the signal that a risk related to mobile phone use would produce, the scientists used simulations to examine the level and range of risks that would be too small to be detectable in these data. The maximum undetectable risks depended on the hypothetical risk scenario investigated. Uncertainties remain for latency periods longer than 20 years and for risks less than an 8% increase. Almost all elevated risks reported in previously published case–control studies were found to be incompatible with the observed time trends in glioma incidence rates. The authors stress that the absence of an observable impact on the glioma incidence rates provides evidence against any significant contribution of mobile phone use to the risk of glioma.

Deltour I, Poulsen AH, Johansen C, Feychting M, Børge Johannesen T, Auvinen A, Schüz J.
Time trends in mobile phone use and glioma incidence among males in the Nordic countries, 1979–2016
Environ Int, Published online 28 August 2022;
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107487

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