This clickbait headline from @CNN on rising rates of #glioblastoma in England & its stated relationship to increased cell phone use deserves some comments.https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/05/02/health/brain-tumors-cell-phones-study/index.html?__twitter_impression=true …
-
Show this thread
-
This is the original PDF http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/aip/7910754.pdf … The paper is a “SEER type” analysis of numbers & makes no attempt at measuring causation (authors admit as much). The discussion is entirely speculative on the underlying causes.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Yes the age standardized ratios are higher in 2011-2015 than in 1995-1999. But the ASR really fluctuates mostly around 1-1.5 and really takes off after 65 - the median age of GBM is 64 so no surprise there.pic.twitter.com/EuWqlCmrO6
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Amongst the list of speculative causes, the authors begin their discussion with increasing use of CT scans as having the most supportive evidence, which I might actually somewhat buy. Cell phone use is mentioned in the last paragraph and of course makes the
@cnn headline.1 reply 0 retweets 1 likeShow this thread -
In this paragraph, they criticize the IARC Interphone study (which was inconclusive to begin with) as not having looked at elderly individuals thus hurting their own argument that the increasing GBM incidence has nothing to do with an aging population.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
The other supporting evidence comes from a Swedish professor, Lennart Hardell who has made a career writing papers in cell phone use & gliomas that have been criticized for methodological flaws or minimal significance.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Here’s the final kicker - the first author of this paper is Technical Director of EMFields Solutions, a company that designs products to protect the public from EMF exposure including - you guessed it - cell phone use!http://www.emfields-solutions.com
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likesShow this thread -
So
@VinayPrasadMD@BenMazer@RogueRad@THilalMD et al - what else did I miss? Disclaimer: I typed this entire thread on a cell phone but fortunately not next to my head!4 replies 0 retweets 3 likesShow this thread -
This Tweet is unavailable.
You also born forgot to mention the Hindawi predatory open access journal the study is published in.
-
-
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
Wow Ben, this is even murkier than I thought! Shame on
@cnnhealth for not doing their due diligence here.0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes - Show replies
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.