Using mobile phones does not increase the risk of developing cancer, the most comprehensive study on the subject to date commissioned by the World Health Organisation has found.

“We have analysed and summarised all the scientific evidence from epidemiological studies, meaning human observational studies, on the topic from around the world,” said co-author Dan Baaken from Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), one of the institutes involved in the systematic review.

“We can say with high certainty that we didn’t overlook anything,” Baaken said.

The researchers examined 5,000 studies on the subject published over the past decades from which they selected 63 with “critical outcomes.”

In their final analysis, they included all types of cancer, but focussed in particular on those affecting the central nervous system, including brain tumors.

They found that mobile phone use did not lead to an increased risk of cancer including brain tumours, pituitary tumours, salivary gland tumours, brain tumours in children or leukaemia.

Being exposed to radiofrequency radiation from base stations or broadcasting antennas also did not increase the risk of developing cancer, according to the researchers.

Mobile phones, like other wireless devices, emit electromagnetic waves to transmit and receive signals, which has occasionally been associated with an increased risk of cancer in the past.

Some older case-control studies, in which sick people were asked about their mobile phone use and compared with healthy participants, had repeatedly established a link between cancer and mobile phone use.

But Baaken noted that those earlier studies were “susceptible to certain types of errors,” adding that there are results from more recent studies with large groups that are scientifically superior to case-control studies in many aspects.

Baaken said the researchers had also looked at time series analyses which compared the number of mobile phone contracts over the years with data from cancer registers in Australia, South Korea, England and the Scandinavian countries.

“Even there, there was no increase in brain tumours that would suggest a connection with mobile phones,” he said.

Published in the journal Environment International, the WHO review includes studies up to the end of 2022, meaning no research has been included on the new 5G technology standard for cellular networks.

“However, we have included studies with contact to radar sources, and radar has a similar frequency to 5G,” said Baaken.