Physicians appeals on the dangers of mobile communication--what is the evidence? Assessment of public health data.
In October 2002 German physicians appealed to persons in the field of health care, politicians and the public with "great concern" ("Freiburger Appell", "Appeal of Freiburg") claiming "soaring incidences of symptoms and diseases in the general population" to be causally related to the "commence of radio (wave) burden", i.e. due to mobile radio technology. This first example was followed by several further appeals published nationally and Europe-wide up until today. The aim of the present paper is an evaluation of the scientific literature and databases to check incidence and prevalence of symptoms and diseases stated in the appeals to have "dramatically increased" or to have appeared in "greater frequency" in adults. If the allegations were true a clear time-trend should show up since the start of widely-used mobile communication technology. The following health conditions were considered: Alzheimer's disease, dementia, sleep disturbances, tinnitus, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic heart-diseases, headache, migraine. Data on the incidence of these conditions were assessed from 1993 through at least 2005. For this, a systematic search by keywords was performed in the online-database of the National Library of Medicine (pubmed) and other national and international (European and US) databases. For none of the considered symptoms or diseases a "dramatic increase" was found to have occurred since 1993. Because of the different diagnoses and terms used in the studies, direct comparability is somewhat difficult. Indeed, with the data available no time related increases and surely no "dramatic increase" can be identified, even if the limited comparability is considered. This analysis strongly suggests that the allegations of the quoted appeals are not supported by public health data.
Zur Nieden
Anja
A
Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Medical Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. anja.zur.nieden@hygiene.med.uni-giessen.de
Dietz
Corinna
C
Eikmann
Thomas
T
Kiefer
Jürgen
J
Herr
Caroline E W
CE
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D040421:Cell Phone; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011846:Radio Waves / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000453:epidemiology