International Cohort Study on Mobile Phone Users (COSMOS)

Results of this study did NOT show that cell phones caused brain cancer. In this study, most people had no increased risk of brain cancer from using cell phones. For people with the heaviest use of cell phones (an average of more than ½ hour per day, every day, for over 10 years) the study suggested a slight increase in brain cancer. However, the authors determined that biases and errors prevented any conclusions being drawn from this data. Additional information about Interphone can be found at http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2010/pdfs/pr200_E.pdf.

Interphone is the largest cell phone study to date, but it did not answer all questions about cell phone safety. Additional research is being conducted around the world, and the FDA continues to monitor developments in this field.

The COSMOS study aims to conduct long-term health monitoring of a large group of people to determine if there are any health issues linked to long-term exposure to radio frequency energy from cell phone use. The COSMOS study will follow approximately 300,000 adult cell phone users in Europe for 20 to 30 years. Additional information about the COSMOS study can be found at http://www.ukcosmos.org/index.html.

Risk of Brain Cancer from Exposure to Radio Frequency Fields in Childhood and Adolescence (MOBI-KIDS)

MOBI-KIDS is an international study investigating the relationship between exposure to radio frequency energy from communication technologies including cell phones and brain cancer in young people. This is an international multi-center study involving 14 European and non-European countries. Additional information about MOBI-KIDS can be found at http://www.creal.cat/programes-recerca/en_projectes-creal/ view.php?ID=39.

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) actively follows cancer statistics in the United States to detect any change in rates of new cases for brain cancer. If cell phones play a role in risk for brain cancer, rates should go up, because heavy cell phone use has been common for quite some time in the U.S. Between 1987 and 2005, the overall age-adjusted incidence of brain cancer did not increase. Additional information about SEER can be found at

http://seer.cancer.gov/.