Cell phone radiofrequency exposure during pregnancy and childhood cancer

January 01, 0001

Cell phone radiofrequency exposure during pregnancy and childhood cancer

Concerns have been raised regarding cell phones as possible being associated with increased risk of some cancers. These British researchers examined the risk of early childhood cancers associated with maternal exposure during pregnancy to mobile phone base stations. Using a cancer registry and national birth register data in Great Britain they performed a case control study involving 1397 cases of cancer in children aged 0-4 from national cancer registry 1999-2001 and 5588 birth controls from national birth register, individually matched by sex and date of birth (four controls per case).

The authors report: "Mean distance of registered address at birth from a macrocell base station, based on a national database of 76 890 base station antennas in 1996-2001, was similar for cases and controls (1107 m v 1073 m), as was total power output of base stations within 700 m of the address (2.89 kW v 3.00 kW) and modelled power density (-30.3 dBm v -29.7 dBm, P=0.41). For modelled power density at the address at birth, compared with the lowest exposure category the adjusted odds ratios were 1.01 in the intermediate and 1.02 in the highest exposure category for all cancers, 0.97 and 0.76, respectively, for brain and central nervous system cancers, and 1.16 and 1.03 for leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma."

The authors concluded: "There is no association between risk of early childhood cancers and estimates of the mother’s exposure to mobile phone base stations during pregnancy."

This study finds no relationship between in utero radiofrequency radiation exposure from mobile phone base stations and early childhood cancers.

For the full abstract, click here.

BMJ 340:c3077 © 2010 Elliott et al.
Mobile phone base stations and early childhood cancers: case- control study. Paul Elliott, Mireille B Toledano, J Bennett, et al. Correspondence to P Elliott: [email protected]

Category: W. Pregnancy, Family Planning. Keywords: pregnancy, radiofrequency radiation, mobile phone, base station, cancer, case control study, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Paul Schaefer, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 30 July 2010

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.

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