Cellular Telephones and NHL

Use of cellular telephones and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Notable increases in the use of hand-held cellular telephones since the 1980s have led to public concern about increased brain tumor risks. Although epidemiological investigations of the relation between cellular telephone use and risk of brain tumors in adults has generally shown little evidence of an association, human and experimental data have raised potential concerns about the risk of lymphoproliferative malignancies in relation to radio-frequency radiation (RFR) exposures. The data from epidemiological and experimental studies motivated assessment of cellular telephones within a comprehensive U.S. case-control investigation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). A questionnaire-based examination of cellular telephone use in 551 NHL cases and 462 frequency-matched population controls revealed no evidence of an increase among individuals whose lifetime use was fewer than ten or more than 100 times. Among persons who had used cellular telephones more than 100 times during their lifetime, risks of NHL were not significantly associated with minutes per week, duration, cumulative lifetime, or year of first use, although NHL was 2.4-fold but non-significantly higher in men who used cellular telephones for more than eight 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 five percent of the population reporting long-term or substantial cumulative use.

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