ARPANSA - Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

By: Baan R, Grosse Y, Lauby-Secretan B, El Ghissassi F, Bouvard V, Benbrahim-Tallaa L, Guha N, Islami F, Galichet L, Straif K
Published in: Lancet Oncol 2011; 12 (7): 624 – 626

In May 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) assessed the possible carcinogenicity (ability to produce or promote cancer) of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). This paper summarises the IARC assessment; the full assessment will be published as an IARC Monograph. IARC assessed studies performed on humans (epidemiological and in the laboratory), on experimental animals and on isolated cellular systems and made the following conclusions:

• There is “limited evidence in humans” for the carcinogenicity of RF EMF, based on positive associations found in some epidemiological studies between glioma and acoustic neuroma and exposure to RF-EMF from wireless phones (mobile and cordless phones).
• There is “limited evidence” in experimental animals for the carcinogenicity of RF-EMF, based on some studies showing an increase in the rate of cancer.
• There is only weak cellular evidence relevant to RFEMF-induced cancer in humans.

In view of the limited evidence in humans and in experimental animals, IARC has classified RF EMF as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (also known as Group 2B carcinogen).

Other categories used by IARC to classify substances, physical agents and work practices are “carcinogenic to humans” Group 1, “probably carcinogenic to humans”, Group 2A, and “not classifiable”, Group 3.  Each classification is based on a formal assessment of the different types of scientific evidence according to IARC’s procedures.

A press release on the classification of RF EMF is available from the IARC website (PDF 250 kb).

ARPANSA has released a statement on the IARC classification of RF fields. 

IARC’s classification was based primarily on several case-control studies since 2000 looking at the association between mobile phone use and brain tumours. The majority of these can be divided into 2 main groups: (a) the INTERPHONE studies, and (b) the studies by Hardell and co-workers (some of which have also included cordless phones).

The INTERPHONE project, which was coordinated by IARC, is a multi-national series of case-control studies (from 13 different countries including Australia) testing whether using mobile phones is associated with an increased risk of various cancers in the head and neck. The INTERPHONE studies were based on a common core protocol to enable valid data pooling. A pooled analysis of the INTERPHONE studies for malignant brain tumours (glioma and meningioma) showed no overall association (presented in the May 2010 report). There were suggestions of an association (most pronounced for glioma) in the group representing individuals with the highest cumulative call time.

Hardell and colleagues have published quite a number of papers since 2000 based on 6 original case-control studies performed in Sweden; some of which have been pooled analyses of the results.  Khurana et al (2009) summarised the Hardell results as showing statistically significant positive associations between glioma or acoustic neuroma (benign brain tumour) and use of analogue, digital or cordless phones. The risks increased with latency period, particularly of more than 10 years, and with cumulative mobile phone use of more than 2000 hours.

The classification by IARC does not provide estimates of what risk of cancer might by posed by any given level of exposure to RF fields.  An assessment of this and other possible health effects will be undertaken by the World Health Organization in the next year.

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By: Cardis E, et al
Published in: Occup Environ Med 2011: in press

This study is a more detailed analysis of results from five countries that took part in the INTERPHONE project (Australia, Canada, France, Israel and New Zealand), investigating whether brain tumours are associated with RF fields from mobile phones.  In this analysis the anatomical location of brain tumours were determined so that the likely absorption of RF energy form a mobile phone could be taken into account. In the analysis 553 subjects with glioma (the cases) were compared with 1762 subjects of similar age, gender and region of residence to the cases but without the disease (the controls) and 676 meningioma cases were compared to 1911 controls. Exposure to RF was estimated as the total cumulative specific energy (TCSE) in joules per kilogram, absorbed at the tumour's estimated centre taking into account various RF exposure parameters (frequency band, type of communication system, side of the head the phone was used etc). There was no association between brain tumour and regular phone use.  The study indicated a greater risk of brain tumour with increasing RF exposure (i.e. increasing TCSE) when using a mobile phone for 7 or more years. In a separate analysis, 44 glioma and 135 meningioma cases in the most exposed area of the brain were compared with gliomas and meningiomas located elsewhere in the brain. The results showed an increased risk for glioma in the most exposed part of the brain for people using a mobile phone for 10 or more years. The risk for meningioma was lower. The authors conclude that there were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma in long-term mobile phone users with high RF exposure and of similar, but apparently much smaller, increases in meningioma risk.

(see also Larjavaara et al, the feature article in the May 2011 Literature Report for a related paper from other countries in the Interphone study).

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By: Schüz J, et al
Published in: Am J Epidemiol 2011: in press

This study investigated whether using a mobile phone for a long time is associated with acoustic neuroma (also called vestibular schwannoma). The study included subjects from 2 large cohorts in Denmark: a) all mobile phone subscribers between 1982-1995 and b) all residents born between 1925 and 1976 who resided in Denmark between 1998 and 2006. A total of 2.9 million subjects were investigated till 2006 for the occurrence of acoustic neuroma. The authors report that no evidence was found that mobile phone use is related to the risk of acoustic neuroma but they note that further investigation is needed because this disease may take a longer time period than the study investigated to develop.

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By: de Vocht F
Published in: Epidemiology 2011; 22 (4): 608 – 609

This study compared the number of new cases of parotid and other salivary gland cancers between 1986-2008 and number of mobile phone subscribers between 1985–2003 in the United Kingdom.  These tumours occur in positions in the head where relatively high absorption of RF energy from a mobile phone is expected. The number of new cases more than doubled from 112 in 1986 to 247 in 2007 in men, and increased from 116 to 199 cases in women. The number of mobile phone subscribers increased from about 50,000 in 1985 to over 52 million in 2003. The authors note that the increase in new cases had already started before mobile phones started to be used widely and differs in magnitude by gender. They conclude that the data suggest that mobile phone use is not the main driver of the increase of parotid gland cases, although, based on these data only, it cannot be excluded as a contributing factor either.

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