“We’ve been talking about this issue for the last 30 years,” he said.

“There have been many studies in the past that have had contrary conclusions so it’s important to combine all the evidence and really let people know what’s really going on.”

Karipidis said researchers on the project analysed the 63 most relevant studies for signs of individual cancers and found no higher risks.

“The evidence does not show a link between mobile phone use and brain cancer or other head and neck cancers,” he said.

“We also found no association with prolonged use, so if people use their mobile phones for 10 years or more we didn’t find an association, and we also found no association with the amount of mobile phone use, either the number of phone calls that people make or the time that people spend on the phone.”

University of Auckland cancer epidemiology honorary professor Mark Elwood, who co-authored the study, said its findings were made with “moderate confidence” which was the highest rating in research without access to clinical trials.

The research could not answer questions about unusual mobile phone exposure or rare cancers due to a lack of research, he said, and its findings applied to 3G and 4G networks.

“There are no major studies yet of 5G networks but there are studies of radar, which has similar high frequencies,” Elwood said.

“These do not show an increased risk.”

ARPANSA research scientist Rohan Mate, who managed the organisation’s Talk to a Scientist program, said the finding could encourage and reassure individuals about their safety.

“We’re hoping that these results will be another way we can reassure them about their safety [and] hopefully relieve them of some of their anxiety surrounding engaging with technology,” he said.

AAP

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