Mobi-kids Study: Summary by Phonegate Alert Association

Mobi-kids : our summary of the study
Equipe Phonegate 9 Jan. 2022

The Mobi-kids study (whose results were expected since 2016!) was finally published on December 30, 2021, in the scientific journal Environment International. Its authors conclude their work as follows:

Overall, our study provides no evidence of a causal association between wireless phone use and brain tumours in young people. However, the sources of bias summarised above prevent us from ruling out a small increased risk.

And the least we can say is that the methodology of the study as well as its results seem to us to be controversial.

[1/2] Here is a summary of our first analysis of the study, followed by the main critical points which, in our opinion, deserve to be studied further by the international scientific community.

Mobi-kids in brief

Mobi-kids is a case-control study conducted in children, adolescents and young adults to analyze the possible relationship between communication technologies, the environment and brain tumors. Mobi-kids was conducted in fourteen countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain) and was international in scope, investigating whether the use of wireless phones increases the risk of brain tumors in young people.

671 tumor cases in young people recruited in fourteen countries

Between 2010 and 2015, the study recruited 899 young people aged 10 to 24 years, all with benign or malignant brain tumors of the neuroepithelial type (for 671 cases), mainly gliomas. A control group included 1,910 young people, operated on for simple appendicitis.

Even in the youngest age group, the vast majority of participants were wireless phone users, including a substantial number of long-term users (i.e., for more than ten years): 22% overall, 51% among 20-24 year olds.

One call per week for three months considered regular use

These young people with a tumor and the control group were divided into three subgroups: 10-14 year olds (287 cases, or 42.8%), 15-19 year olds (217 cases, or 32.3%) and 20-24 year olds (167 cases, or 24.9%). Most of the younger subjects had low mobile phone use, so comparing risk within each age category was feasible.

Regular phone use was defined as “having made or received calls at least once a week for a period of three months or more.” These variables were calculated separately for mobile and cordless phones.

In the 15-19 age group, non-regular users accounted for 3% of participants. In the 20+ age group, they were 1%.

Summary in full:
https://www.phonegatealert.org/en/mobi-kids-our-summary-of-the-study