Dr. Joel Moskowitz, Director of the Center for Family and Community Health School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley posted on Rising Brain Tumor Rates in the US and the Role of Cell Phone & Cordless Phone Use. The following content is excerpted from his post on Electromagnetic Radiation Safety, Feb 1, 2024.
Head and neck tumors associated with cell phone use have increased in the U.S. since 2000Since the year 2000, the U.S. has experienced significant increases in the age-adjusted incidence rates of four head and neck tumors associated with cell phone use, including the most serious malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma), a non-malignant tumor on the outer covering of the brain (meningioma) and cancers of the salivary and thyroid glands. Among youth less than 20 years of age, nonmalignant meningioma and thyroid cancer significantly increased.Whereas the size of the population in the U.S. increased 16% between 2000 and 2019, the number of cases reported in the National Cancer Institute’s SEER 22 registry for these four tumors had a greater increase: a 53% increase for glioblastoma, 124% for non-malignant meningioma, 52% for salivary gland cancer, and 132% for thyroid cancer.The increase in age-adjusted incidence rates for these four tumors is likely attributable to the chronic effects of mobile phone use in addition to other factors including improvements in screening.The tumor incidence rate data we report are from the SEER 22 Registry which covers 48% of the total U.S. population. The data were age-adjusted to the population in the year 2000 so observed differences over time are not affected by changes in the age composition of the population.
