{"id":76649,"date":"2021-05-31T09:44:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T13:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=76649"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:24","slug":"carleton-researcher-finds-no-link-between-increased-cellphone-use-and-brain-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2021\/carleton-researcher-finds-no-link-between-increased-cellphone-use-and-brain-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Researcher Finds No Link Between Increased Cellphone Use and Brain Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Carleton Researcher Finds No Link Between Increased Cellphone Use and Brain Cancer\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Carleton University Prof. <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/healthsciences\/people\/paul-villeneuve\/\">Paul Villeneuve<\/a> has published research challenging epidemiological reports that linked increased cellphone use to brain cancer, specifically glioma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Villeneuve and his team evaluated whether changes in cellphone use and the incidence of glioma in Canada were consistent with the hypothesis of increased risk. The results are provided in this <a href=\"https:\/\/authors.elsevier.com\/sd\/article\/S0013-9351(21)00577-6\">article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of cellular subscriptions in Canada increased from zero in the early 1980s to approximately 29.5 million in 2015. In contrast, the incidence of glioma, when adjusted for age, has remained relatively unchanged over the same time period Some earlier studies overestimated the predicted number of diagnosed glioma cases by up to 86 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The absence of elevated rates of glioma along with marked increases in cellphone use suggests that there may not be a causal link between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have limited data on a national level to describe Canadians\u2019 cellphone usages,\u2019\u2019 said Villeneuve, who\u2019s with Carleton\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/healthsciences\/\">Department of Health Sciences<\/a>. \u201cThis includes data on how many years individuals have used a cellphone, how often they use it, and even the manner in which they use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;But even when we applied conservative estimates of the number of cellphone users etc., our models suggest that findings from previous epidemiological studies, indicating an increased risk of brain cancer from cellphone use, are not supported.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Villeneuve used data from the Canadian Cancer Registry to calculate annual incidence rates for glioma between 1992 and 2015 and data from national industry statistics to determine the annual number of new cellphone subscribers. The number of newly-diagnosed gliomas was compared to the number predicted in the studies that suggested a link by applying risks from epidemiological studies to age-specific population estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Media Contact<br>\n<\/strong>Steven Reid<br>\nMedia Relations Officer<br>\nCarleton University<br>\n613-265-6613<br>\n<a href=\"mailto:Steven.Reid3@carleton.ca\">Steven.Reid3@carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom\">www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom<\/a><br>\nCOVID 19 Updates:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/\">https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carleton University Prof. Paul Villeneuve has published research challenging epidemiological reports that linked increased cellphone use to brain cancer, specifically glioma. Villeneuve and his team evaluated whether changes in cellphone use and the incidence of glioma in Canada were consistent with the hypothesis of increased risk. The results are provided in this article. The number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":74636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[162,91],"class_list":["post-76649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-releases","tag-health-sciences","tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76650,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76649\/revisions\/76650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}