Overall mortality of cellular telephone customers.
Rothman KJ, Loughlin JE, Funch DP, Dreyer NA · 1996
View Original AbstractThis 1994 study found no increased death rates from early cellular phones, but one year of data cannot detect long-term health effects.
Plain English Summary
Researchers tracked mortality rates among more than 250,000 cellular phone customers in 1994, comparing users of portable phones (which expose the head to radio frequency energy) with mobile phone users (whose antennas were separate from the handset). They found no significant difference in death rates between the two groups, with portable phone users actually showing slightly lower mortality rates.
Why This Matters
This early mortality surveillance study represents one of the first attempts to examine whether cellular phone radiation exposure affects overall health outcomes at the population level. While the researchers found no increased mortality among portable phone users compared to mobile phone users, this study has significant limitations that prevent drawing firm conclusions about EMF safety. The one-year observation period in 1994 captured an era when cellular phone usage was far less intensive than today, and many serious health effects like cancer can take decades to develop. What this study does demonstrate is the importance of long-term epidemiological monitoring of wireless device users. The reality is that we're now conducting a massive, uncontrolled experiment on human health with EMF exposure levels that dwarf what these 1994 users experienced, making continued surveillance more critical than ever.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
Unlike mobile cellular telephones, in which the antenna is not part of the handset, a portable cellular telephone exposes the user's head to radio frequency energy transmitted from the antenna. This exposure has prompted concerns about potential biological effects, including brain cancer.
As a first step in a record-based mortality surveillance of cellular telephone customers, we report ...
We found age specific rates to be similar for users of the two types of telephones. For customers wi...
Show BibTeX
@article{kj_1996_overall_mortality_of_cellular_2544,
author = {Rothman KJ and Loughlin JE and Funch DP and Dreyer NA},
title = {Overall mortality of cellular telephone customers.},
year = {1996},
url = {https://www.rti.org/publication/overall-mortality-cellular-telephone-customers},
}