title: The incidence rate and mortality of malignant brain tumors after 10 years of intensive cell phone use in Taiwan.
abstract: The issue of whether cell phone usage can contribute toward the development of brain tumors has recently been reignited with the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as 'possibly' carcinogenic to humans in a WHO report. To our knowledge, this is the largest study reporting on the incidence and mortality of malignant brain tumors after long-term use of the cell phone by more than 23 million users. A population-based study was carried out the numbers of cell phone users were collected from the official statistics provided by the National Communication Commission. According to National Cancer Registry, there were 4 incidences and 4 deaths due to malignant neoplasms in Taiwan during the period 2000-2009. The 10 years of observational data show that the intensive user rate of cell phones has had no significant effect on the incidence rate or on the mortality of malignant brain tumors in Taiwan. In conclusion, we do not detect any correlation between the morbidity/mortality of malignant brain tumors and cell phone use in Taiwan. We thus urge international agencies to publish only confirmatory reports with more applicable conclusions in public. This will help spare the public from unnecessary worries.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Health, Bureau of International Cooperation bInstitute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang Ming University cSchool of Health Care Administration dCollege of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University eDepartment of Dermatology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan fHealth Informatics Centre, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Min-Huei
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Shabbir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Syed-Abdul
authors.forename: Jeremiah
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scholl
authors.forename: Wen-Shan
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Peisan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Usman
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Yu-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors