In July 2019 researchers from Finland, Sweden, UK, France, The Netherlands and Denmark published the results of their study to assess the association between amount of mobile phone use and frequency of headache, tinnitus or hearing loss. A total of 21,049 individuals in Sweden and 3,120 in Finland were involved in the study. Information on headache, tinnitus and hearing loss was collected both at the start and end of the study which lasted for a 4-year period. In addition, each individual gave consent for their mobile phone call data to be used. Results showed that those individuals with the highest amount of call-time (call-time of over 276 min/week) had a slightly increased frequency of weekly headaches. However it was noted that the association of headache with call-time was stronger for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System network and that there was no association when the Global System for Mobile Telecommunications technology was being used which has a higher radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure. There did not appear to be any association between call time and tinnitus and hearing loss.
Auvinen A et al. Headache, tinnitus and hearing loss in the international Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Health (COSMOS) in Sweden and Finland. Int J Epidemiol. 2019 Jul 13. [Epub ahead of print]