Ever since we started holding our cell phones up to our ears, there have been concerns that the radio waves they emit could cause cancer. While this makes sense in a Black Mirror kind of way—and some might have stuck with their landlines at first—after more than two decades of our yakking on mobiles, extensive scientific evidence fails to support the idea that phones add to radiation risks for the human body.
Meet the expert: Daniel Landau, M.D., a board-certified hematologist and oncologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston
The science so far points to no. The conversation flared up again last year when the World Health Organization (WHO) released a large-scale systematic review of all the research on the topic. Scientists examined 63 studies from 22 countries published between 1994 and 2022. The focus was on brain cancer and other cancers of the central nervous system, including gliomas, meningiomas, acoustic neuromas, and pituitary tumors. Researchers reported that despite the large increase in the use of wireless technology in the past two decades, there had been no corresponding increase in brain cancer risk. What’s more, neither the frequency nor the duration of subjects’ calls was linked to cancer. There were also no increased risks of brain tumors or leukemia in kids exposed to cell towers or radio and TV transmitters, despite rumors.
What’s the origin of cell phones causing cancer?
So how did this worry begin in the first place? As with many urban legends, it was rooted in a legitimate concern about radiofrequency radiation and a decision to be cautious about it until more was known. In 2011, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified exposure to radio waves as “possibly carcinogenic.” Per the IARC, this meant only, “There could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk,” a better-safe-than-sorry approach. Now, 14 years later, we have the information to make a clearer determination.
Wait, do cell phones emit radiation?
The most recent WHO review of studies confirms what many suspected, says Daniel Landau, M.D., a board-certified hematologist and oncologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The radiation from cell phones is of a type known as nonionizing radiation. “The more dangerous types, such as the ones that come from nuclear bombs or other nuclear material, are ionizing,” Dr. Landau explains, and exposure to ionizing radiation is what causes the DNA damage that may lead to cancer. The nonionizing type (which microwave ovens also emit) has too little energy to be dangerous.
So don’t worry about getting brain cancer from your cell phone, though Dr. Landau nonetheless advises limiting the time for which you hold a phone next to your head, as “there may be other risks the study did not pick up on.” Still, he says, “I feel that a study like this offers us reassurance,” adding that a clear link between cell phones and brain cancer would likely have emerged by now if one existed.
If you’re still concerned, using headphones, earbuds, or the speakerphone function will slash your radiation exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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