Do Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer? A New WHO-Commissioned Review Says No

Mar. 15, 2025

A stock image of people using cellphones.Photo:Getty

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The systematic review, published inEnvironment International, found that while the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies have massively increased in the last two decades, there has been no rise in the incidence of brain or other head and neck cancers.

The review not only found no concrete link between cellphone use and brain cancer, but it also found no link with prolonged (a decade or more) cellphone useoramount (number of calls made or time spent on the device) of cellphone use.

According to Ken Karipidis, an associate professor withAustralian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency’s (ARPANSA) who led the review, it is the “most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the evidence to date.”

Karipidis and the other experts considered over 5,000 studies published between 1994 and 2022, ultimately including 63 in its final analysis, and focused on brain cancer and other cancers of the central nervous system — including glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, pituitary tumours and more.

A stock photo of kids using cellphones.Getty

The review pushed back on the 2013 decision of the WHO’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to classify exposure to radio waves as possibly carcinogenic — which, despite the worry it drummed up, “doesn’t mean all that much," Karipidis toldThe Guardian.

It is one of the IARC’s several classifications of cancer risk, which range from “definite” carcinogens like smoking tobacco to “possible,” where radio waves reside alongside substances like aloe vera.

In astatement, Karipidis said the IARC’s decision “was largely based on limited evidence from human observational studies” — not to mention, lots more relevant studies have emerged in the 11 years since.

He also stated that much early research on whether radio waves are carcinogenic relied on comparing the responses of people with brain cancer to those without — which can be “somewhat biased,” he toldThe Washington Post.

An individual with a brain tumor, he said, “wants to know why they’ve got the brain tumor and tends to overreport their exposure,” while more comprehensive cohort studies have not shown those sort of associations.”

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With the new review turning the IARC’s classification on its head, Karipidis toldThe Guardianthat he is “quite confident with" the review’s conclusion.

“And what makes us quite confident is … even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumor rates have remained stable,” he added.

source: people.com