Living Near a Cell Phone Tower Not Linked to Childhood Cancers

The Scoop

Children of women who lived near cell phone towers during pregnancy are not at increased risk for childhood cancers, according to new research from Great Britain. Published June 22, 2010, in an online edition of the British Medical Journal, the study identified approximately 1,300 cases of childhood cancer in Great Britain where it was possible to measure the distance from the nearest cell phone tower to a mother's primary residence during pregnancy.

According to a Los Angeles Times report on the study, mothers whose children were diagnosed with cancer lived an average of 1,173 yards from a cell phone tower while they were pregnant—statistically indistinguishable from the 1,211 yards that separated the other pregnant women (with healthy children) from their nearest cell phone towers. Tallying up the total power output of all cell phone towers within 766 yards of each pregnant woman's home, they found that both groups had nearly the same exposure—2.89 kilowatts for the mothers of cancer victims and 3.00 kilowatts for the other mothers.

"Clinicians should reassure patients not to worry about proximity to mobile phone masts [towers]," writes John Bithell of the University of Oxford's Childhood Cancer Research Group in a British Medical Journal. "Moving away from a mast, with all its stresses and costs, cannot be justified on health grounds in light of current evidence."

For Baby

In their study, researchers admit their conclusions would be stronger if they could have determined the actual radiation exposure for each pregnant woman, rather than just relying on mathematical models based on cell phone output versus distance of each woman's house from the tower.

And as the Los Angeles Times notes, data on radiation exposure of babies after they were born was also unavailable. But researchers stand firm in their belief that, when it comes to childhood cancers, moms-to-be should not worry about cell phone tower radiation. If cell phone towers had increased the risk for these childhood cancers, researchers speculate, the odds that their study would have picked up on it were greater than 90 percent.