Mobile Phone Use and Risk of Parotid Gland Tumor

• Published in: American journal of epidemiology 2006-10, Vol.164 (7), p.637-643
• Main Authors: Lönn, Stefan, Ahlbom, Anders, Christensen, Helle C., Johansen, Christoffer, Schüz, Joachim, Edström, Staffan, Henriksson, Gert, Lundgren, Jan, Wennerberg, Johan, Feychting, Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Analysis. Health state; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Cell Phone; cellular phone; Cellular telephones; Denmark - epidemiology; electromagnetic fields; Electromagnetic Fields - adverse effects; Epidemiology; Female; Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; General aspects; Health Sciences; Humans; Hypothesis testing; Hälsovetenskap; International Union against Cancer; Logistic Models; Male; Medical and Health Sciences; Medical sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; neoplasms; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced - epidemiology; parotid gland; Parotid Neoplasms - epidemiology; Parotid Neoplasms - etiology; Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; radiation-induced; Risk assessment; Risk Factors; salivary glands; Sweden - epidemiology; Time Factors; Tumors; UICC
• ISSN: 0002-9262; 1476-6256
• DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwj242

Handheld mobile phones were introduced in Denmark and Sweden during the late 1980s. This makes the Danish and Swedish populations suitable for a study aimed at testing the hypothesis that long-term mobile phone use increases the risk of parotid gland tumors. In this population-based case-control study, the authors identified all cases aged 20–69 years diagnosed with parotid gland tumor during 2000–2002 in Denmark and certain parts of Sweden. Controls were randomly selected from the study population base. Detailed information about mobile phone use was collected from 60 cases of malignant parotid gland tumors (85% response rate), 112 benign pleomorphic adenomas (88% response rate), and 681 controls (70% response rate). For regular mobile phone use, regardless of duration, the risk estimates for malignant and benign tumors were 0.7 (95% confidence interval: 0.4, 1.3) and 0.9 (95% confidence interval: 0.5, 1.5), respectively. Similar results were found for more than 10 years' duration of mobile phone use. The risk estimate did not increase, regardless of type of phone and amount of use. The authors conclude that the data do not support the hypothesis that mobile phone use is related to an increased risk of parotid gland tumors.