Mobi-Kids: A Study with Controversial Results

Mobi-Kids: A study with controversial results
Equipe Phonegate 11 Jan. 2022

Expected since 2016, the Mobi-kids study has just been published – discreetly – on December 30, 2021, in the scientific journal Environment International. The careful reading we have done leads us to express a critical opinion, both on the methodology of the study itself and on the various conflicts of interest detected with the mobile company Orange – and, consequently, reaching the controversial results described here.

[1/2] First of all, we have summarized this study whose consequences are essential in terms of public health protection, especially for children and young users of mobile phones. It is therefore necessary to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

[2/2] In this second part, we try to highlight the different points which, according to us, cast doubt on this scientific work.

The questionable choice of a case-control study

From a strictly epidemiological point of view, the authors’ choice to proceed by comparing case groups with control groups could, in itself, have distorted the entire study. Indeed, it is assumed that if the factor (here exposure to mobile phones) plays a role in the appearance of the disease, then the frequency of exposure for affected cases will be higher than for controls. What is measured, therefore, is the difference in exposure between two groups, the group of sick subjects (the cases) and the group of subjects free of brain tumors (the control group).

This is precisely what the authors point out in their own publication, citing Prof. Michael Kundi, one of the scientists of MOBI-Kids, namely :

“Case-control studies are not well suited to identify tumor promotion effects (Kundi, 2010).”

Thus in the abstract of his paper published in 2010, here is an excerpt from his conclusion:

For brain tumours latencies of decades have been implicated making special considerations about potential effects of exposures necessary that commence during an already growing tumour. It is shown that measures of disease risk like odds ratios and relative risks can under such circumstances not be interpreted as indicators of a long term effect on incidences in the exposed population.

In fact, for this type of study, it would have been preferable to carry out an exposure/non-exposure survey. Of course, the study would have been longer, but it would also have been much more reliable, allowing to measure directly and precisely the exposure to the factors.

However – and this is an essential point for any epidemiological study concerning our exposure to waves – it is almost impossible to find unexposed populations, unlike, for example, a study on cigarettes/smoking.

Here is what Dr. Joel Moskowitz, from the University of California, Berkeley (USA), who analyzed the Mobi-kids study, concludes:

“Conducting this type of research is a complex endeavor with a high risk of failure. Although the authors made an exemplary effort to salvage the study via supplemental substudies and post-hoc analyses, they were unsuccessful in overcoming the study’s methodologic problems. Hence, in my professional opinion the results seem uninterpretable.”

Continue reading:
https://www.phonegatealert.org/en/mobi-kids-study-with-controversial-results