No brain cancer for you!

By now, you have to have heard the rumors of cell phones giving you brain cancer of the biblical proportions. It’s been the greatest proponent for people telling drivers to not use a cell while driving (well, that and the tried and true “You look like a douchebag!”).

Welllllll, scientists just completed a massive, international study of the connection between brain cancer and mobile phone use, and it looks like those people are gonna have to get a new excuse. Maybe.

The new study, called INTERPHONE, is the largest of its type, and was organized by a division of the World Health Organization. Researchers wanted to find out if there was a link between two common types of brain cancer – glioma and meningioma – and mobile phone use. They studied 2,708 people with glioma, 2,409 with meningioma, and 7,658 people in a control group. Their subjects came from 13 different countries.

Unfortunately, results were both inconclusive and kind of weird. Why? It’s hard to conduct a scientific study that’s based in part on self-reported behaviors. Ultimately though, until researchers are able to get better data, it’s impossible to say whether there is a link between mobile phone use and brain cancer.

Some might say that’s not cause for relief, rather, it’s cause for more research. Those people are to be labeled whiners.