A new study links mobile phone use to brain tumor risks, writes the press uncritically. As I've written before, there is one critical word to look for to determine if such a study is junk:
The use of mobile phones over a long period of time can raise the risk for brain tumors, a new Swedish study said on Friday, contradicting the conclusions of other researchers.
Yes, it's the word in bold there. This is yet another study from a specific group of Swedish cancer researchers who consistently find a link between cancer and everything they test for, using methodologies that are known to give false positives and be filled with pitfalls. Other scientists who try to replicate the studies invariably find no such links.
One of the authors of this new report is professor Lennart Hardell, the father of all Swedish cancer paranoia. The Swedish cancer fund has long ago - in 1996 - found out his game, and wants nothing to do with him. He still manages, somehow, to get his studies published, but nobody cites them approvingly except the popular press and alt-med websites.
An article in Svenska Dagbladet from 19. September 2002 is still very current, it calls him "Swedish champion in cancer-alerts" and writes [my translation]:
Everything from tampons to breast milk and old TVs have been accused of being cancer risks. The noise has often been started on the debate pages of Dagens Nyheter and almost always broke through in other media.
Lately, it has been mostly about mobile phones, studies that are now invalidated by experts from the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority.
This excessive noise was followed for a long time by collegial silence from the world of science, at the same time as Lennart Hardell's star was fading. He has very few research projects, since 1996 he has for example been totally rejected by the Cancerfund's grants. Question marks have been surrounding his use of so-called case-studies, a method known for being very insecure, having low evidence value and being pitfall-prone. But few has said anything, except maybe lately when a number of leading Swedish epidemiologists and others have started arguing first and foremost against the mobile phone alert.
Four years later, Lennart Hardell is still able to get headlines for his worthless "studies", which more and more appear like a personal vendetta to vindicate himself in face of an overwhelming amount of research that rejected his old conclusions. He gets no respect from the world of science. His world now is uncritical journalists and the alt-med community.
1:20:18 PM 
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