RE: "LONG-TERM MOBILE PHONE USE AND BRAIN TUMOR RISK"

Samuel Milham

2318 Gravelly Beach Loop NW, Olympia, WA 98502

A cursory glance at the recent paper in the Journal by Lönn et al. (1Go) reveals that, in tables 2–4, only four of 136 calculated odds ratios are above 1.0. If there is no relation between cell phone use and the development of brain tumors, I would expect as many odds ratios above as below 1.0. This finding suggests that either cell phone use protects against brain cancer or there is a problem with exposure assessment. Tables 5 and 6 in their paper show that the odds ratios for long-term ipsilateral cell phone use are nearly always systematically higher than those for contralateral use. In table 5, where the numbers of cases for analysis are larger than those in table 6, the ratios of ipsilateral/contralateral odds ratios for long-term use and long-term duration since first use are as follows:




Glioma


Meningioma


>10 years of regular use 1.8/0.6 = 3.0 1.4/0.5 = 2.8
>10 years since first regular use

1.6/0.7 = 2.3

1.3/0.5 = 2.6

Although the authors do not say so, I think that their study shows that ipsilateral cell phone use is associated with brain tumor development.


    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
Conflict of interest: none declared.


    References
 TOP
 References
 

  1. Lönn S, Ahlbom A, Hall P, et al. Long-term mobile phone use and brain tumor risk. Am J Epidemiol 2005;161:526–35.[Abstract/Free Full Text]




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