Study: Cell Phones Don't Raise Brain Cancer Risk in Kids, University of Basel Reveals

Children and teens who use cell phones are not at increased risk of getting brain cancer, according to a new Swiss study. "We did not find that young mobile phone users have an increased risk for brain tumors when regularly using mobile phones," says study researcher Martin Roosli, PhD, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel. Nor did they find a link with longer use. "We did not see that the risk increased after five years or more since the first use of mobile phones," he tells WebMD. The study is believed to be the first to research cell phone use among youth with brain tumors. Roosli calls the results ''reassuring." However, he adds a caveat: "The amount of use in our study is relatively low," he says. Regular users in the study, conducted from 2004 to 2008, were defined as those who talked at least once a week for six months or more. "Nowadays, I think young people use [cell phones] more," Roosli says.