# INTERPHONE international case–control study (2010)

> The largest case–control study of mobile phone use and brain tumours found no overall increase in glioma or meningioma, with a raised glioma odds ratio confined to the highest decile of reported call time.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/studies/interphone-2010
- Collection: Research record
- Record id: `studies:interphone-2010`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/studies/interphone-2010

## Key values

- **Authors:** INTERPHONE Study Group
- **Year:** 2010
- **Design:** case control
- **Exposure studied:** Cumulative mobile phone call time, self-reported, 13 countries
- **Place in the evidence base:** high
- **Primary document:** https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/39/3/675/632606

## Finding

No increase in glioma or meningioma overall. In the highest decile of cumulative call time (≥1640 hours) the glioma odds ratio was about 1.4, which the authors judged possibly explained by bias and error rather than a causal effect.

## What it cannot establish

Exposure was recalled by participants, and recall bias is documented in the study itself; some odds ratios fell implausibly below 1.0 for moderate use, indicating methodological error. Handset technology has changed substantially since the exposure period.

## Related records

- [IARC classification of radiofrequency fields as Group 2B (2011)](https://emfbase.com/studies/iarc-2011-rf-group-2b): IARC classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B) based on limited evidence for glioma and acoustic neuroma from heavy mobile phone use.
- [Smartphone (cellular uplink)](https://emfbase.com/emitters/smartphone): Handsets transmit up to about 200 mW (23 dBm) on cellular uplink and are used against the head, so exposure is governed by SAR — 1.6 W/kg over 1 g in the U.S., 2 W/kg over 10 g under ICNIRP — not by power density.

## Sources

- `interphone-2010` International Journal of Epidemiology (INTERPHONE Study Group) (2010). *Brain tumour risk in relation to mobile telephone use: results of the INTERPHONE international case–control study*. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/39/3/675/632606 — peer-reviewed, link checked 2026-08-12
- `nih-nci-cellphones` National Cancer Institute. *Cell Phones and Cancer Risk*. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet — government, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.