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Cellular Telephone Use and Cancer
Risk: Update of a Nationwide Danish Cohort
Joachim Schüz, Rune
Jacobsen, Jørgen H. Olsen, John D. Boice,
Jr, Joseph K. McLaughlin, Christoffer
Johansen
Affiliations of authors: Institute
of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
(JS, RJ, JHO, CJ); International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD
(JDB, JKM); Vanderbilt–Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University
Medical Center, Nashville, TN (JDB, JKM) -- Correspondence to: Joachim
Schüz, PhD, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society,
Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark (e-mail: joachim@cancer.dk
).
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Background. The widespread
use of cellular telephones has heightened concerns about
possible adverse health effects.
The objective of this study was to investigate cancer risk
among Danish cellular telephone users who were followed for
up to 21 years.
Methods. This
study is an extended follow-up of a large nationwide cohort of
420 095 persons whose first cellular telephone subscription was
between 1982 and 1995 and who were followed through 2002 for
cancer incidence.
Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated by
dividing the number of observed cancer cases in the cohort
by the number expected in the Danish population
Results. A total of 14
249 cancers were observed (SIR = 0.95; 95% confidence
interval [CI] = 0.93 to 0.97) for men and women combined.
Cellular telephone use was not associated with increased risk
for brain tumors (SIR = 0.97), acoustic neuromas (SIR = 0.73),
salivary gland tumors (SIR = 0.77), eye tumors (SIR = 0.96),
or leukemias (SIR = 1.00).
Among long-term subscribers of 10 years or more, cellular
telephone use was not associated with increased risk for
brain tumors (SIR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.44 to 0.95), and there
was no trend with time since first subscription.
The risk for smoking-related cancers was decreased among men (SIR
= 0.88, 95% CI = 0.86 to 0.91) but increased among women (SIR
= 1.11, 95% CI = 1.02 to 1.21).
Additional data on income and smoking prevalence, primarily
among men, indicated that cellular telephone users who
started subscriptions in the mid-1980s appeared to have a
higher income and to smoke less than the general
population.
Conclusions. We found no
evidence for an association between tumor risk and cellular
telephone use among either short-term or long-term
users.
Moreover, the narrow confidence intervals provide evidence
that any large association of risk of cancer and cellular
telephone use can be excluded.
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