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. 2011 Oct 19:343:d6387.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.d6387.

Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study

Patrizia Frei  1 , Aslak H Poulsen, Christoffer Johansen, Jørgen H Olsen, Marianne Steding-Jessen, Joachim Schüz
Affiliations

Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study

Patrizia Frei et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the risk of tumours in the central nervous system among Danish mobile phone subscribers.

Design: Nationwide cohort study.

Setting: Denmark.

Participants: All Danes aged ≥ 30 and born in Denmark after 1925, subdivided into subscribers and non-subscribers of mobile phones before 1995.

Main outcome measures: Risk of tumours of the central nervous system, identified from the complete Danish Cancer Register. Sex specific incidence rate ratios estimated with log linear Poisson regression models adjusted for age, calendar period, education, and disposable income.

Results: 358,403 subscription holders accrued 3.8 million person years. In the follow-up period 1990-2007, there were 10,729 cases of tumours of the central nervous system. The risk of such tumours was close to unity for both men and women. When restricted to individuals with the longest mobile phone use--that is, ≥ 13 years of subscription--the incidence rate ratio was 1.03 (95% confidence interval 0.83 to 1.27) in men and 0.91 (0.41 to 2.04) in women. Among those with subscriptions of ≥ 10 years, ratios were 1.04 (0.85 to 1.26) in men and 1.04 (0.56 to 1.95) in women for glioma and 0.90 (0.57 to 1.42) in men and 0.93 (0.46 to 1.87) in women for meningioma. There was no indication of dose-response relation either by years since first subscription for a mobile phone or by anatomical location of the tumour--that is, in regions of the brain closest to where the handset is usually held to the head.

Conclusions: In this update of a large nationwide cohort study of mobile phone use, there were no increased risks of tumours of the central nervous system, providing little evidence for a causal association.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

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Fig 1 Details of determination of final sample contributing to exposed person time
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Fig 2 Definition of study cohort and periods of collection of exposure data and follow-up for cancer outcome by age and time. Shaded area represents time span for which data on socioeconomic indicators were available for members of CANULI cohort
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