Cellular Phone Use and Risk of Tumors: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Yoon-Jung Choi, Joel M. Moskowitz, Seung-Kwon Myung, Yi-Ryoung Lee and Yun-Chul Hong
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Yoon-Jung Choi: Department of Family Medicine and Center for Cancer Prevention and Detection, Hospital, National Cancer Center, Goyang 10408, Korea
Joel M. Moskowitz: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-7358, USA
Seung-Kwon Myung: Department of Family Medicine and Center for Cancer Prevention and Detection, Hospital, National Cancer Center, Goyang 10408, Korea
Yi-Ryoung Lee: Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea
Yun-Chul Hong: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 110-744, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: We investigated whether cellular phone use was associated with increased risk of tumors using a meta-analysis of case-control studies. PubMed and EMBASE were searched from inception to July 2018. The primary outcome was the risk of tumors by cellular phone use, which was measured by pooling each odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI). In a meta-analysis of 46 case-control studies, compared with never or rarely having used a cellular phone, regular use was not associated with tumor risk in the random-effects meta-analysis. However, in the subgroup meta-analysis by research group, there was a statistically significant positive association (harmful effect) in the Hardell et al. studies (OR, 1.15—95% CI, 1.00 to 1.33— n = 10), a statistically significant negative association (beneficial effect) in the INTERPHONE-related studies (case-control studies from 13 countries coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC); (OR, 0.81—95% CI, 0.75 to 0.89— n = 9), and no statistically significant association in other research groups’ studies. Further, cellular phone use with cumulative call time more than 1000 h statistically significantly increased the risk of tumors. This comprehensive meta-analysis of case-control studies found evidence that linked cellular phone use to increased tumor risk.

Keywords: cellular phone; electromagnetic field; tumor; case-control study; meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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