Case-control study on the use of mobile and cordless phones and the risk for malignant melanoma in the head and neck region.
Hardell L, Carlberg M, Hansson Mild K, Eriksson M. · 2011
View Original AbstractHeavy phone users who started before age 20 showed double the skin cancer risk in head and neck areas closest to phone antennas.
Plain English Summary
Swedish researchers studied 347 people with malignant melanoma (skin cancer) on the head and neck and compared their mobile and cordless phone use to 1,184 healthy controls. They found that people who used phones for more than 365 hours and started using them before age 20 had roughly double the risk of developing melanoma in areas closest to where phones are held. The findings suggest radiofrequency radiation might promote skin cancer development, though the researchers emphasize more studies are needed to confirm this connection.
Why This Matters
This study adds to growing concerns about radiofrequency radiation's role in cancer development, particularly for those who began using wireless devices as children or teenagers. What makes this research particularly noteworthy is that it examines skin cancer rather than brain tumors, suggesting EMF effects may extend beyond the nervous system. The 365-hour threshold represents roughly 6 hours of cumulative talk time per year over a decade - easily achievable for regular phone users. The doubled risk for early adopters who started before age 20 aligns with other research showing greater vulnerability during developmental years. While the researchers appropriately call for caution in interpreting results, this adds to the body of evidence suggesting that our current safety standards may not adequately protect against long-term health effects, especially for young users whose exposure patterns differ significantly from the adult male models used to establish current guidelines.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
The aim of this study is to investigate Case-control study on the use of mobile and cordless phones and the risk for malignant melanoma in the head and neck region
In this case-control study we assessed use of mobile and cordless phones in 347 cases with melanoma ...
Overall no increased risk was found. However, in the most exposed area; temporal, cheek and ear, cum...
The results must be interpreted with caution due to low numbers and potential methodological shortcomings in a case-control study. However, the findings might be consistent with a late carcinogenic effect from microwaves, i.e. tumour promotion, but need to be confirmed.
Show BibTeX
@article{l_2011_casecontrol_study_on_the_2177,
author = {Hardell L and Carlberg M and Hansson Mild K and Eriksson M.},
title = {Case-control study on the use of mobile and cordless phones and the risk for malignant melanoma in the head and neck region.},
year = {2011},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21764571/},
}