Handheld cellular telephones and risk of acoustic neuroma
Muscat JE, Malkin MG, Shore RE,. Thompson S, Neugut AL, Stellman SD, Bruce J. · 2002
View Original AbstractCell phone users showed no increased acoustic neuroma risk, but tumors unexpectedly occurred more on the opposite side from phone use.
Plain English Summary
Researchers studied whether cell phone use increases the risk of acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor that develops near the ear. They compared 90 patients with these tumors to 86 healthy controls and found no increased risk overall. However, among cell phone users who did develop tumors, the tumors appeared more often on the opposite side of the head from where they held their phone, which was unexpected.
Why This Matters
This early 2002 study represents one of the first attempts to examine cell phone radiation's potential link to acoustic neuromas, tumors that develop on the nerve connecting the ear to the brain. While the overall results showed no increased risk, the finding that tumors occurred more frequently on the side opposite to phone use raises important questions about the biological mechanisms at play. The science demonstrates that if RF radiation were directly causing these tumors, you'd expect them to develop on the same side where the phone is held against the head. This counterintuitive finding suggests the relationship between cell phone radiation and brain tumors may be more complex than simple thermal heating effects. What this means for you is that while this study didn't find an overall increased risk, the authors themselves noted that longer observation periods might be needed to detect effects, as brain tumors can take decades to develop.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To study Handheld cellular telephones and risk of acoustic neuroma
The hypothesis that intracranial energy deposition from handheld cellular telephones causes acoustic...
The relative risk was 0.9 (p = 0.07) and did not vary significantly by the frequency, duration, and ...
Show BibTeX
@article{je_2002_handheld_cellular_telephones_and_2453,
author = {Muscat JE and Malkin MG and Shore RE and. Thompson S and Neugut AL and Stellman SD and Bruce J. },
title = {Handheld cellular telephones and risk of acoustic neuroma},
year = {2002},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11971109/},
}