2000 Hours of Cellphone Use
Increases Risk of Brain Tumor 270%

M.T. WHITNEY / NewsTarget 22feb2007

[More on cellphones]

Using a cell phone regularly — even a modern one — raises the risk of developing a brain tumor for many users, a new Finnish study published online in the International Journal of Cancer. The study, done by a collection of researchers from many universities and led by Anna Lahkola of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland, found firm corollary evidence that using a cell phone causes the risk of getting a brain tumor called a glioma to rise by 40 to 270 percent on the side of the head preferred for using the phone.

What you need to know — Conventional View

• The study compared 1,521 cellular phone users who received a glioma to 3,301 control participants without tumors.
• For people who have used a modern cellular phone for more than 2000 hours in their lifetime, the risk of getting a brain tumor rose by 270 percent.
• The study is considered the second that firmly correlates cell phone usage with an increased risk of developing certain brain tumors.
• The risk was highest among people under the age of 20.
• Older-style analog cell phones already have been shown as a source of brain tumors, but even with the development of digital cellular phones, the risk is still there.
• According to a scientist associated with the web site foodconsumer.org, the study results should not make readers assume that ten years of cell phone use will correlate to an immediate tumor, but that the tumor will show up later than that.

What you need to know — Alternative View

• Mobile phone manufacturers have tried to suppress the dangers of mobile phones by funding their own distorted research that concludes the phones are perfectly safe.
• All people — but children and teens especially — should be warned against using mobile phones due to the increased risk of brain tumors.

Bottom line

• Cell phone usage is shown to increase your risk of a brain tumor.

International Journal of Cancer
Volume 120, Issue 8 , Pages 1769 - 1775
Published Online: 17 Jan 2007

Epidemiology

Mobile phone use and risk of glioma in 5 North European countries

Anna Lahkola 1 *, Anssi Auvinen 1 2, Jani Raitanen 1 2, Minouk J. Schoemaker 3, Helle C. Christensen 4, Maria Feychting 5, Christoffer Johansen 4, Lars Klæboe 6, Stefan Lönn 5, Anthony J. Swerdlow 3, Tore Tynes 6 7, Tiina Salminen 1 2

1STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland / 2Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland / 3Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton / 4Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark / 5Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden / 6Institute of Population-Based Cancer Research, The Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway / 7Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, Østerås, Norway

email: Anna Lahkola (anna.lahkola@stuk.fi)

*Correspondence to Anna Lahkola, STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, P.O. Box 14, FIN-00881, Helsinki, Finland

Fax: +358-9-759-88-670.

Funded by: Academy of Finland; Grant Number: 80921 / Swedish Research Council / Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources program of European Union / International Union against Cancer (UICC); Grant Number: RCA/01/08 / Mobile Manufacturers' forum and the GSM Association / Emil Aaltonen Foundation / Doctoral Programs for Public Health / Mobile Telecommunications, Health and Research (MTHR) /

Keywords     mobile phones • brain tumors • case-control studies

Abstract      Public concern has been expressed about the possible adverse health effects of mobile telephones, mainly related to intracranial tumors. We conducted a population-based case-control study to investigate the relationship between mobile phone use and risk of glioma among 1,522 glioma patients and 3,301 controls. We found no evidence of increased risk of glioma related to regular mobile phone use (odds ratio, OR = 0.78, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.68, 0.91). No significant association was found across categories with duration of use, years since first use, cumulative number of calls or cumulative hours of use. When the linear trend was examined, the OR for cumulative hours of mobile phone use was 1.006 (1.002, 1.010) per 100 hr, but no such relationship was found for the years of use or the number of calls. We found no increased risks when analogue and digital phones were analyzed separately. For more than 10 years of mobile phone use reported on the side of the head where the tumor was located, an increased OR of borderline statistical significance (OR = 1.39, 95% CI 1.01, 1.92, p trend 0.04) was found, whereas similar use on the opposite side of the head resulted in an OR of 0.98 (95% CI 0.71, 1.37). Although our results overall do not indicate an increased risk of glioma in relation to mobile phone use, the possible risk in the most heavily exposed part of the brain with long-term use needs to be explored further before firm conclusions can be drawn. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Received: 27 April 2006; Accepted: 16 October 2006

source: 5mar2007