Cellular telephones and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Dramatic increase in hand-held cellular telephone use since the 1980s and excess risk of lymphoproliferative malignancies associated with radio-frequency radiation (RFR) exposures in epidemiological and experimental studies motivated assessment of cellular telephones within a comprehensive US case-control investigation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). A questionnaire ascertained cellular telephone use in 551 NHL cases and 462 frequency-matched population controls. Compared to persons who had never used cellular telephones, risks were not increased among individuals whose lifetime use was fewer than 10 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.9, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.6, 1.3), 10-100 (OR = 1.0, 95 % CI: 0.7, 1.5) or more than 100 times (e.g., regular users, OR = 0.9, 95% CI: 0.6, 1.4). Among regular users compared to those who had never used hand-held cellular telephones, risks of NHL were not significantly associated with minutes per week, duration, cumulative lifetime or year of first use, although NHL was non-significantly higher in men who used cellular telephones for more than 8 years. Little evidence linked use of cellular telephones with total, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or follicular NHL. These findings must be interpreted in the context of less than 5% of the population reporting duration of use of 6 or more years or lifetime cumulative use of 200 or more hours.
Linet
Martha S
MS
Radiation Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-7238, USA. linetm@mail.nih.gov
Taggart
Theresa
T
Severson
Richard K
RK
Cerhan
James R
JR
Cozen
Wendy
W
Hartge
Patricia
P
Colt
Joanne
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016403:Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse / Q000453:epidemiology; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology