Cellular telephones and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Linet MS, Taggart T, Severson RK, Cerhan JR, Cozen W, Hartge P, Colt J. · 2006
View Original AbstractThis early study found no lymphoma risk from cell phones, but examined mostly short-term, light users before smartphones became ubiquitous.
Plain English Summary
Researchers studied whether cellular phone use increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (a type of blood cancer) by comparing 551 cancer patients to 462 healthy controls. They found no increased cancer risk even among regular phone users, though very few participants had used phones for more than 6 years or 200 total hours. The findings are limited because cell phone use was still relatively new when the study was conducted in the early 2000s.
Why This Matters
This 2006 study represents an important early attempt to investigate potential links between cellular phone radiation and blood cancers, but its timing severely limits its relevance to today's usage patterns. The reality is that less than 5% of participants had used phones for 6 or more years, and the study captured an era when cell phone penetration was still relatively low. What this means for you is that while the study found no increased lymphoma risk, it essentially examined light, short-term use compared to the intensive, decades-long exposure patterns common today. The science demonstrates that cancer typically requires years or decades to develop, making studies of early adopters with limited exposure less informative about long-term risks. This research highlights the challenge of studying emerging technologies where meaningful long-term data simply doesn't exist yet.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
The aim of this study is to investigate Cellular telephones and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
A questionnaire ascertained cellular telephone use in 551 NHL cases and 462 frequency-matched popula...
Compared to persons who had never used cellular telephones, risks were not increased among individua...
These findings must be interpreted in the context of less than 5% of the population reporting duration of use of 6 or more years or lifetime cumulative use of 200 or more hours.
Show BibTeX
@article{ms_2006_cellular_telephones_and_nonhodgkin_2365,
author = {Linet MS and Taggart T and Severson RK and Cerhan JR and Cozen W and Hartge P and Colt J.},
title = {Cellular telephones and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.},
year = {2006},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16894556/},
}