06/02/2006 - Study shows increase in brain cancer risk from using a mobile or cordless phone for over 5 years
Overview
A new study has just been published in the Journal of Oncology (February
2006), showing the most convincing evidence yet that long term usage of mobile
and cordless phones may well increase the chance of getting brain cancer. Usage
of analogue mobile phones for longer than 1 year was found to increase the risk
of acoustic neuroma threefold (OR = 2.9 - 95% CI 2.0-4.3). Both GSM digital
phones and cordless telephones were found to increase the risk by approximately
50% (OR = 1.5 - 95% CI 1.1-2.1 and OR = 1.5 - 95% CI 1.04-2.0
respectively).
It is currently unlikely for a study to find much of an association between a
cause and brain cancer with less than 10 years exposure as it usually takes at
least this long for brain cancer to develop to the point it is diagnosed. This
is one of the first studies thought to be capable of making a genuine assessment
of mobile phone usage for longer than 10 years.
Initial analysis of the results in the study suggest that there is, on the
whole, a noticeable increase in risk after 5 years of use. For acoustic neuromas
there seems to be little further increase after 10 years, however for all benign
tumours grouped together, the increase with time is significant. The following
increased relative risk results are for GSM phone users who have used their
phone for at least 64 hours in total (i.e. 64 minutes per month over 5 years or
32 minutes per month over 10 years) and cordless phone users over 195 hours
(i.e. 98 minutes per month or 3 minutes each day, averaged over 10 years).
| |
|
Years of usage |
|
| Phone Type |
1 - 5 years |
5 - 10 years |
over 10 years |
| Digital users |
1.1 |
1.5* |
1.6 |
| Cordless users |
1.2 |
1.6* |
2.1* |
The relative risks marked * are statistically significant at 95% confidence
interval
Summary
It appears that there is a very strong and definitive trend in acoustic
neuromas, where even short term usage significantly increases your risk of
developing the tumour, even for digital and cordless phones. Analogue phones
seem to have posed the greatest risk and also show significant increases in
other types of benign tumours, especially with longer term usage. One concerning
finding is the statistically significant association of all benign brain tumours
with cordless phone use, showing a doubling in risk for more than 10 years use
at a very low average use per day. As the average latency time for these benign
tumours is thought to be 10 years or greater, it would be very helpful to
conduct a larger study in a few years when it is possible to get both a) a
larger sample of long term users of mobile phones, and b) a longer period of
usage for the long term users.
 -
International Journal of Oncology
- Contents of the Journal's February 2006 issue, where this study is
published
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