🇬🇧 EN 🇳🇴 NO
← Back to EMF Signal Cancers (MDPI)
Research Cell towers

Faster 2G tower growth linked to modest rise in glioblastoma in adults over 70 - no 4G association

October 23, 2026 (EMFS)
Oct 21, 2026 (original)
Source: Cancers (MDPI)
Source category: Research
AI use
A group of mainly New York based researchers, writing in the journal Cancers, compared growth in cell tower density with growth in brain tumor incidence across 884 US counties covering 46 percent of the population, between 2011-2015 and 2016-2020. Counties with faster growth in older 2G tower density had modestly greater increases in glioblastoma, an association that held after adjustment for 19 socioeconomic, healthcare and environmental factors but was significant only in adults aged 70 and older. Newer 4G towers showed no significant association, the vestibular schwannoma control was null, and several of the strictest statistical models found nothing. The authors call the findings hypothesis-generating and stress that causation is not established.

Quotes

"Counties where older-generation (2G) tower density grew more quickly had modestly greater increases in glioblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor."

— Barbero et al.

"This association remained after accounting for differences in socioeconomic conditions, healthcare, and environmental factors."

— Barbero et al.

"Tower density is a crude proxy for individual RF-EMF dose. It does not account for transmission power, distance from towers, indoor versus outdoor exposure, antenna directionality, frequency, building penetration, terrain effects, or concurrent personal device use."

— Barbero et al.

"These findings do not establish cause and effect, but suggest that radiofrequency exposure in the surrounding environment from cell tower infrastructure deserves further study."

— Barbero et al.

Corrected 23 October 2026: At first publication we described the authors as neurosurgery researchers at Northwell Health and Baylor College of Medicine. That did not represent the researchers' affiliations completely.

Location

📍 United States

Map: United States

Source

Ecological Analysis of Spatiotemporal Patterns in Brain Tumor Incidence and Cellular Infrastructure Growth in the United States mdpi.com

📄 Underlying Research

Ecological Analysis of Spatiotemporal Patterns in Brain Tumor Incidence and Cellular Infrastructure Growth in the United States

Barbero JA, Unadkat P, Eichberg DG, D'Amico RS, Sciubba DM, Schulder M, Park J (2026) Cancers Journal Level 1ⓘ

🔗 DOI

Related coverage

More on this topic