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      Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure

      review-article
      ICNIRP (International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) Standing Committee on Epidemiology:, 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6
      Environmental Health Perspectives
      electromagnetic fields, EMF, epidemiology, health effects, radiofrequency, RF

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          Abstract

          We have undertaken a comprehensive review of epidemiologic studies about the effects of radiofrequency fields (RFs) on human health in order to summarize the current state of knowledge, explain the methodologic issues that are involved, and aid in the planning of future studies. There have been a large number of occupational studies over several decades, particularly on cancer, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcome, and cataract, in relation to RF exposure. More recently, there have been studies of residential exposure, mainly from radio and television transmitters, and especially focusing on leukemia. There have also been studies of mobile telephone users, particularly on brain tumors and less often on other cancers and on symptoms. Results of these studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between RF exposure and any adverse health effect. On the other hand, the studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association. A key concern across all studies is the quality of assessment of RF exposure. Despite the ubiquity of new technologies using RFs, little is known about population exposure from RF sources and even less about the relative importance of different sources. Other cautions are that mobile phone studies to date have been able to address only relatively short lag periods, that almost no data are available on the consequences of childhood exposure, and that published data largely concentrate on a small number of outcomes, especially brain tumor and leukemia.

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          Most cited references93

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          Cellular-telephone use and brain tumors.

          Concern has arisen that the use of hand-held cellular telephones might cause brain tumors. If such a risk does exist, the matter would be of considerable public health importance, given the rapid increase worldwide in the use of these devices. We examined the use of cellular telephones in a case-control study of intracranial tumors of the nervous system conducted between 1994 and 1998. We enrolled 782 patients through hospitals in Phoenix, Arizona; Boston; and Pittsburgh; 489 had histologically confirmed glioma, 197 had meningioma, and 96 had acoustic neuroma. The 799 controls were patients admitted to the same hospitals as the patients with brain tumors for a variety of nonmalignant conditions. As compared with never, or very rarely, having used a cellular telephone, the relative risks associated with a cumulative use of a cellular telephone for more than 100 hours were 0.9 for glioma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.5 to 1.6), 0.7 for meningioma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.3 to 1.7), 1.4 for acoustic neuroma (95 percent confidence interval, 0.6 to 3.5), and 1.0 for all types of tumors combined (95 percent confidence interval, 0.6 to 1.5). There was no evidence that the risks were higher among persons who used cellular telephones for 60 or more minutes per day or regularly for five or more years. Tumors did not occur disproportionately often on the side of head on which the telephone was typically used. These data do not support the hypothesis that the recent use of hand-held cellular telephones causes brain tumors, but they are not sufficient to evaluate the risks among long-term, heavy users and for potentially long induction periods.
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            Incidence of breast cancer in Norwegian female radio and telegraph operators.

            Exposure to electromagnetic fields may cause breast cancer in women if it increases susceptibility to sex-hormone-related cancer by diminishing the pineal gland's production of melatonin. We have studied breast cancer incidence in female radio and telegraph operators with potential exposure to light at night, radio frequency (405 kHz-25 MHz), and, to some extent, extremely low frequency fields (50 Hz). We linked the Norwegian Telecom cohort of female radio and telegraph operators working at sea to the Cancer Registry of Norway to study incident cases of breast cancer. The cohort consisted of 2,619 women who were certified to work as radio and telegraph operators between 1920 and 1980. Cancer incidence was analyzed on the basis of the standardized incidence ratio (SIR), with the Norwegian female population as the comparison group. The incidence of all cancers was close to unity (SIR = 1.2). An excess risk was seen for breast cancer (SIR = 1.5). Analysis of a nested case-control study within the cohort showed an association between breast cancer in women aged 50+ years and shift work. In a model with adjustment for age, calendar year, and year of first birth, the rate ratio for breast cancer associated with being a radio and telegraph operator--in comparison with all Norwegian women born 1935 or later--analyzed with Poisson regression, was 1.5 after adjustment for fertility factors. These results support a possible association between work as a radio and telegraph operator and breast cancer. Future epidemiologic studies on breast cancer in women aged 50 and over, should address possible disturbances of chronobiological parameters by environmental factors.
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              Cellular telephones and cancer--a nationwide cohort study in Denmark.

              Use of cellular telephones is increasing exponentially and has become part of everyday life. Concerns about possible carcinogenic effects of radiofrequency signals have been raised, although they are based on limited scientific evidence. A retrospective cohort study of cancer incidence was conducted in Denmark of all users of cellular telephones during the period from 1982 through 1995. Subscriber lists from the two Danish operating companies identified 420 095 cellular telephone users. Cancer incidence was determined by linkage with the Danish Cancer Registry. All statistical tests are two-sided. Overall, 3391 cancers were observed with 3825 expected, yielding a significantly decreased standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of 0.89 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.86 to 0.92). A substantial proportion of this decreased risk was attributed to deficits of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers. No excesses were observed for cancers of the brain or nervous system (SIR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.81 to 1.12) or of the salivary gland (SIR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.29 to 1.49) or for leukemia (SIR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.78-1.21), cancers of a priori interest. Risk for these cancers also did not vary by duration of cellular telephone use, time since first subscription, age at first subscription, or type of cellular telephone (analogue or digital). Analysis of brain and nervous system tumors showed no statistically significant SIRs for any subtype or anatomic location. The results of this investigation, the first nationwide cancer incidence study of cellular phone users, do not support the hypothesis of an association between use of these telephones and tumors of the brain or salivary gland, leukemia, or other cancers.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Environ Health Perspect
                Environmental Health Perspectives
                0091-6765
                December 2004
                23 September 2004
                : 112
                : 17
                : 1741-1754
                Affiliations
                1Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
                2Stockholm Center for Public Health, Stockholm, Sweden
                3Epidemiology and Public Health Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia
                4Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
                5Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
                6Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom
                Author notes

                Address correspondence to A. Ahlbom, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Telephone: 46-8-5248-74-70. Fax: 4-8-31-39-61. E-mail: anders.ahlbom@ 123456imm.ki.se

                We thank R. Neale for help with an initial draft, M. Feychting for comments, and M. Bittar for secretarial assistance. We also thank P. Vecchia for invaluable advice and P. Buffler for participation in planning of the work.

                This work was supported by the ICNIRP.

                The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

                Article
                ehp0112-001741
                10.1289/ehp.7306
                1253668
                15579422
                64298a55-b407-4e8a-bac0-008dbc255a88
                This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original DOI.
                History
                : 1 June 2004
                : 23 September 2004
                Categories
                Environmental Medicine
                Review

                Public health
                health effects,epidemiology,emf,radiofrequency,rf,electromagnetic fields
                Public health
                health effects, epidemiology, emf, radiofrequency, rf, electromagnetic fields

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