Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Self-reported Electrical Appliance Use and Risk of Adult Brain Tumors
1 Radiation Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD.
2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
3 International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD.
4 Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA.
5 Division of Neurosurgery, Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA.
6 Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ.
7 Neuro-Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD.
Electrical appliances produce the highest intensity exposures to residential extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields. The authors investigated whether appliances may be associated with adult brain tumors in a hospital-based case-control study at three centers in the United States from 1994 to 1998. A total of 410 glioma, 178 meningioma, and 90 acoustic neuroma cases and 686 controls responded to a self-administered questionnaire about 14 electrical appliances. There was little evidence of association between brain tumors and curling iron, heating pad, vibrating massager, electric blanket, heated water bed, sound system, computer, television, humidifier, microwave oven, and electric stove. Ever use of hair dryers was associated with glioma (odds ratio = 1.7, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 2.5), but there was no evidence of increasing risk with increasing amount of use. In men, meningioma was associated with electric shaver use (odds ratio = 10.9, 95% confidence interval: 2.3, 50), and odds ratios increased with cumulative minutes of use, although they were based on only two nonexposed cases. Recall bias for appliances used regularly near the head or chance may provide an alternative explanation for the observed associations. Overall, results indicate that extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields from commonly used household appliances are unlikely to increase the risk of brain tumors.
adult; brain neoplasms; case-control studies; electromagnetic fields; meningioma; questionnaires; risk
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; ELF, extremely low frequency; EMF, electromagnetic field(s); OR, odds ratio.
Correspondence to Ruth Kleinerman, Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 6120 Executive Boulevard, EPS 7044, Rockville, MD 20852-7238 (e-mail: kleinerr{at}mail.nih.gov).
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