EMF Database abstract: CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY IN CELLULAR TELEPHONE USERS (LETTER).

EMF Database sample abstract

Last modified on: Monday, July 31, 2000
Copyright © 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.

CAUSE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY IN CELLULAR TELEPHONE USERS (LETTER).
(Eng.) Dreyer, N. A., Loughlin, J. E., Rothman, K. J. [Epidemiology Research Institute, Newton Lower Falls, MA]
JAMA 282(19):1814-1816; 1999
Funding: Wireless Research Technology, LLC

This brief report presents cause-specific mortality/100,000 in 1994 for an expanded cohort in the age-specific total mortality study reported previously (Rothman et al., Epidemiology 7(3):303-305, 1996, BENER Abstract No. 13771). A cohort of noncorporate cellular telephone customers was compiled from 2 large U.S. cellular phone carriers. Data available were: name, address, date of birth, sex, mobile telephone, electronic serial, social security, and account numbers, number of minutes billed, duration of service, and number of calls made and received in November and December 1993. Death data was obtained through the National Death Index. Causes of death were classified: all cancer, brain cancer, leukemia, circulatory, motor vehicle collisions, and all deaths. Handheld telephone users were compared with non-handheld (usually car) telephone users, in terms of exposure as minutes/day or length of service in years. Data for the 285,561 analog telephone users were presented in a table. Non-handheld users had median exposure of 1.5 min/day and 2.1 yr of service. Handheld users were divided into <2 min/day or <= 3 yr use, and >=2 min/day or >3 yr of service. In only one category of cause of death, namely motor vehicle collisions, was there any indication of increased risk with increasing minutes of telephone use; the standardized mortality rate (SMR, deaths per 100,000 person-years) was 8.6 (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.6-14) for non-handheld, 6.0 (4 deaths, no CI given) for <2 min/day, and 16 (CI 4.4-27) for >2 min/day handheld. A similar finding was seen in terms of number of calls/day (data not presented). In terms of length of service, the data did not differ significantly for this category of collisions: SMR 7.6 (CI 3.0-12) for non-handheld, 6.5 (no CI given, 6 deaths) for <3 yr, and 8.4 (no CI given, 1 death) for >3 yr handheld service. However, the length of service did show a small increase in overall risk of death from all causes among non-handheld users (SMR 251 (CI 225-277) for non-handheld versus 221 (CI 185-258) for <= 3 yr and 216 (CI 69.3-362) for > 3 yr classes of handheld users. Further analysis of the data in terms of categories of <1 min/day, 1-3 min/day, and >3 min/day gave suggestions of an increasing SMR trend with 5.0, 10, and 12/100,000, while for length of service of <= 3 yr or >3 yr the trend was inverse with 8.4 and 4.5 deaths/100,000, respectively. The findings were accompanied by a caution regarding lack of information as to whether the phone was used immediately before the fatal crash, and regarding the relation between driving hr and telephone hr. Furthermore, a class-action lawsuit has blocked access to surveillance data beyond 1 yr. (4 Refs.). [Copyright 2000, Information Ventures, Inc.]

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