Shocking U.S. Senate Hearing Confirms Dangers of Cell Phones

By on January 7, 2010 in News 5

Via Magda Havas, BSc., PhD’s website:

It begins as a lump or mass on the side of the face in front of the ear, at or above the jawbone. If the growth is slow and the lump is painless it is likely to be benign (80% of cases). If the area is painful or numb (nerve paralysis) it may be malignant (20% of cases) and the prognosis is poor with average survival of 2.7 years and a 10-year survival of 14–26%. It affects between 1 to 3 people per 100,000 each year in the Western world. What I am referring to is a parotid gland tumor (PGT), also known as salivary gland tumor (SGT).

Parotid tumors have not received much attention until recently.

, , , ,

  • Word Eater

    Abstract
    The objective of this nationwide study was to assess the association between cellular phone use and development of parotid gland tumors (PGTs). The methods were based on the international INTERPHONE study that aimed to evaluate possible adverse effects of cellular phone use. The study included 402 benign and 58 malignant incident cases of PGTs diagnosed in Israel at age 18 years or more, in 2001–2003, and 1,266 population individually matched controls. For the entire group, no increased risk of PGTs was observed for ever having been a regular cellular phone user (odds ratio = 0.87; p = 0.3) or for any other measure of exposure investigated. However, analysis restricted to regular users or to conditions that may yield higher levels of exposure (e.g., heavy use in rural areas) showed consistently elevated risks. For ipsilateral use, the odds ratios in the highest category of cumulative number of calls and call time without use of hands-free devices were 1.58 (95% confidence interval: 1.11, 2.24) and 1.49 (95% confidence interval: 1.05, 2.13), respectively. The risk for contralateral use was not significantly different from 1. A positive dose-response trend was found for these measurements. Based on the largest number of benign PGT patients reported to date, our results suggest an association between cellular phone use and PGTs.

  • Word Eater

    From a meta-analysis of bunches of studies about this (http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/27…

    Results
    Of 465 articles meeting our initial criteria, 23 case-control studies, which involved 37,916 participants (12,344 patient cases and 25,572 controls), were included in the final analyses. Compared with never or rarely having used a mobile phone, the odds ratio for overall use was 0.98 for malignant and benign tumors (95% CI, 0.89 to 1.07) in a random-effects meta-analysis of all 23 studies. However, a significant positive association (harmful effect) was observed in a random-effects meta-analysis of eight studies using blinding, whereas a significant negative association (protective effect) was observed in a fixed-effects meta-analysis of 15 studies not using blinding. Mobile phone use of 10 years or longer was associated with a risk of tumors in 13 studies reporting this association (odds ratio = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.34). Further, these findings were also observed in the subgroup analyses by methodologic quality of study. Blinding and methodologic quality of study were strongly associated with the research group.

    Conclusion
    The current study found that there is possible evidence linking mobile phone use to an increased risk of tumors from a meta-analysis of low-biased case-control studies. Prospective cohort studies providing a higher level of evidence are needed.

    Written on behalf of the Korean Meta-Analysis (KORMA) Study Group.

    Supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through Cooperative Agreement No. U48/DP000033 (D.D.M., G.K., J.M.M.).

    The contents of the article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

    • Anonymous 2

      Thank you so much Word Eater, I really didn't feel like watching a senate hearing right now. 8)

  • Anonymous

    I keep my phone turned off most of the time, it’s irritating to be onhand to people 24 hours a day. This news doesn’t make me want to change my habits. I’m sure a new market for safer mobile tech will spring up pretty quickly though.

  • http://twitter.com/Dumbsaint Dumbsaint

    I keep my phone turned off most of the time, it's irritating to be onhand to people 24 hours a day. This news doesn't make me want to change my habits. I'm sure a new market for safer mobile tech will spring up pretty quickly though.