Cross posted from Nature’s The Great Beyond blog.
Mobile phones increase metabolic activity in some parts of the brain during a long telephone call, new research shows. Yet the 47-person study, published today in JAMA, offers no evidence for — or against — the controversial claim that mobile phones may cause brain cancer, its authors and other scientists emphasize.
Studies of brain cancer rates among large numbers of people have been difficult to interpret: Some have found slightly higher rates of brain cancers among cell phone users, others lower rates and many documented no change at all.
Even the studies showing an increased risk of brain cancer for cell phone users can’t say anything about whether mobile phone use causes cancer. But if cell phones could influence brain cancer, there must be a plausible scientific explanation as to how. The new JAMA study represents a toe dipped into the Olympic-size swimming pool that is determining such a mechanism.