(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Pollution and Thyroid)

Abstract

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the World Health Organization (WHO) categorized in 2011 radiofrequency (RF) as a possible human carcinogen, Group 2B. During use of the handheld wireless phone, especially the smartphone, the thyroid gland is a target organ. During the 21st century, the incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing in many countries. We used the Swedish Cancer Register to study trends from 1970 to 2017. During that time period, the incidence increased statistically significantly in women with average annual percentage change (AAPC) +2.13%, 95% confidence interval (CI) +1.43, +2.83%. The increase was especially pronounced during 2010–2017 with annual percentage change (APC) +9.65%, 95% CI +6.68, +12.71%. In men, AAPC increased during 1970–2017 with +1.49%, 95% CI +0.71, +2.28%. Highest increase was found for the time period 2001–2017 with APC +5.26%, 95% CI +4.05, +6.49%. Similar results were found for all Nordic countries based on NORDCAN 1970–2016 with APC +5.83%, 95% CI +4.56, +7.12 in women from 2006 to 2016 and APC + 5.48%, 95% CI +3.92, +7.06% in men from 2005 to 2016. According to the Swedish Cancer Register, the increasing incidence was similar for tumors ≤4 cm as for tumors >4 cm, indicating that the increase cannot be explained by overdiagnosis. These results are in agreement with recent results on increased thyroid cancer risk associated with the use of mobile phones. We postulate that RF radiation is a causative factor for the increasing thyroid cancer incidence.

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https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/9129

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The post Is the Increasing Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in the Nordic Countries Caused by Use of Mobile Phones? appeared first on EMFSA.

Cancers in the head and neck are increasing in Sweden

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and some experts with ties to industry have argued during the last years that there are no health risks from mobile phone use since there is no increased incidence in brain tumours in Swedish and other cancer registries. This new data shows that the argument is not only wrong from an ethical point, it is also not in line with the data.

The Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation urges that the public is broadly informed about the health risks and that urgent measures to protect children and adults from health risks from mobile phone radiation are put in place, in line with the demand from over 230 scientists in EMF Scientists appeal, signed by 236 scientists. https://www.emfscientist.org/index.php/emf-scientist-appeal

Recently, Lennart Hardell’s group published a new article on brain tumor rates in Sweden using the Inpatient Register for the time period 1998-2015. Also incidence data using the Swedish Cancer Register was analyzed for the same time period. The full article can be found here http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185461 The abstract is below.

Hardell’s group used the Swedish Inpatient Register (IPR) to analyze rates of brain tumors of unknown type (D43) during 1998-2015. Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) per 100,000 increased with +2.06%, 95% confidence interval (CI) +1.27, +2.86% in both genders combined. A joinpoint was found in 2007 with Annual Percentage Change (APC) 1998-2007 of +0.16%, 95% CI -0.94, +1.28%, and 2007-2015 of +4.24%, 95% CI +2.87, +5.63%. Highest AAPC was found in the age group 20-39 years. In the Swedish Cancer Register the age-standardized incidence rate per 100,000 increased for brain tumors, ICD-code 193.0, during 1998-2015 with AAPC in men +0.49%, 95% CI +0.05, +0.94%, and in women +0.33%, 95% CI -0.29, +0.45%. The cases with brain tumor of unknown type lack morphological examination. Brain tumor diagnosis was based on cytology/histopathology in 83% for men and in 87% for women in 1980 in the Cancer Register. This frequency increased to 90% in men and 88% in women in 2015. During the same time period CT and MRI imaging techniques were introduced and morphology is not always necessary for diagnosis. If all brain tumors based on clinical diagnosis with CT or MRI had been reported to the Cancer Register the frequency of diagnoses based on cytology/histology would have decreased in the register. The results indicate underreporting of brain tumor cases to the Cancer Register. The real incidence would be higher. Thus, incidence trends based on the Cancer Register should be used with caution. Use of wireless phones should be considered in relation to the change of incidence rates.

Further reading:

BioInitiative Report: Medical concerns intensify over deadly brain tumors from cell phone use / Orebro University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden/November 17, 2017

Press Announcement BioInitiative Working Group 2017

BioInitiative Report: Medical concerns intensify over deadly brain tumors from cell phone use / Orebro University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden/November 17, 2017

This new update from the BioInitiative Working Group 2017 shows the evidence has strengthened for brain cancers related to wireless phone use. The Group has released an update analyzing scientific results of case-control studies published between 2010 and 2017 on cancers of the brain.

For glioma, a malignant brain cancer with a very poor survival rate especially for high-grade
glioma, there is nearly a doubling of the risk overall if the cell phone is used for 1,640 hours or
more. If the cell phone is used primarily on the same side of the head however, the odds of
getting a tumor on that side of the head increase to more than two and a half times compared to
those with no wireless phone exposure.
Survival time after brain tumor diagnosis is also shorter with wireless phone use in patients with
glioblastoma multiforme, compared to patients with no use.

“There is a consistent pattern of increased risk for glioma (a malignant brain tumor) and
acoustic neuroma with use of mobile and cordless phones” says Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD,
Orebro University, Sweden, according to publications through mid-2017. “Epidemiological
evidence shows that radiofrequency should be classified as a Group 1 (Known) Human
Carcinogen. The evidence for risks to health from brain tumors has substantially increased since
2010. The existing FCC/IEEE and ICNIRP public safety limits are not adequate to protect public
health.”
An increased risk in acoustic neuroma (a non-malignant tumor of the auditory nerve) is also
reported. Cell phone users with 1,640 hours or more of use are nearly two and three-quarters
more likely than non-users to develop an acoustic neuroma when the phone is used primarily on
the side of the head where the tumor occurs.
Both cell phones and cordless phones pose a risk of brain tumors.

Link to the Bioinitiative Press Announcement below:http://www.bioinitiative.org/bioinitiative-report-medical-concerns-intensify-over-deadly-brain-tumors-from-cell-phone-use-orebro-university-hospital-sweden-november-17-2017/

BioInitiative Report Supplement 11, 2017, Hardell and Carlberg Hardell-2017-Sec11-Update-Use_of_Wireless_Phones

The post Cancer incidence data from the Swedish Cancer Registry January 2018 appeared first on EMFSA.

A new update from the the BioInitiative Working Group 2017 shows the evidence has strengthened for brain cancers related to wireless phone use. The Group has released an update analyzing scientific results of case-control studies published between 2010 and 2017 on cancers of the brain.

For glioma, a malignant brain cancer with a very poor survival rate especially for high-grade
glioma, there is nearly a doubling of the risk overall if the cell phone is used for 1,640 hours or
more. If the cell phone is used primarily on the same side of the head however, the odds of
getting a tumor on that side of the head increase to more than two and a half times compared to
those with no wireless phone exposure.
Survival time after brain tumor diagnosis is also shorter with wireless phone use in patients with
glioblastoma multiforme, compared to patients with no use.

“There is a consistent pattern of increased risk for glioma (a malignant brain tumor) and
acoustic neuroma with use of mobile and cordless phones” says Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD,
Orebro University, Sweden, according to publications through mid-2017. “Epidemiological
evidence shows that radiofrequency should be classified as a Group 1 (Known) Human
Carcinogen. The evidence for risks to health from brain tumors has substantially increased since
2010. The existing FCC/IEEE and ICNIRP public safety limits are not adequate to protect public
health.”
An increased risk in acoustic neuroma (a non-malignant tumor of the auditory nerve) is also
reported. Cell phone users with 1,640 hours or more of use are nearly two and three-quarters
more likely than non-users to develop an acoustic neuroma when the phone is used primarily on
the side of the head where the tumor occurs.
Both cell phones and cordless phones pose a risk of brain tumors.

Link to the Bioinitiative Press Announcement below:

  http://www.bioinitiative.org/bioinitiative-report-medical-concerns-intensify-over-deadly-brain-tumors-from-cell-phone-use-orebro-university-hospital-sweden-november-17-2017/

BioInitiative Report Supplement 11, 2017, Hardell and Carlberg) Hardell-2017-Sec11-Update-Use_of_Wireless_Phones

The post BioInitiative Report: Medical concerns intensify over deadly brain tumors from cell phone use / Orebro University Hospital, Orebro, Sweden/November 17, 2017 appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract
Advances in modern technologies such as telecommunication have widely expanded the applications of wireless systems. Therefore, humans are continuously exposed to electromagnetic fields (EMFs)produced by widely used devices such as mobile and cordless phones and Wi-Fi routers. According to the World Health Organization, electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is the medical term for a variety of nonspecific symptoms that afflicted subjects attribute to exposure to different sources of EMFs. About 25% of the general population reports different levels of environmental intolerance to factors such as EMFs, and studies performed in Europe show that about 75% of general practitioners had visited patients complaining of EHS. In this paper, multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN)–based models are proposed to predict the subjective health symptoms in inhabitants living in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations. The classifier uses several parameters such as demographic data, environmental exposure to a mobile phone station, and the health conditions of an individual as input to estimate subjective health symptoms. Out of 699 data sets recorded from 363 men and 336 women via questionnaire, 70% were used for training, 15% for validation, and the remaining 15% for testing the developed system. The performance of the developed system (sensitivity and specificity) in predicting the subjective health symptoms is as follows: headache (72%, 91%), fatigue (8%, 98%), sleep disturbance (97%, 93%), dizziness (65%, 85%), vertigo (65%, 84%). These promising results suggest that this system might be useful as a means for predicting the health symptoms in people living in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations, which ultimately enhances the quality of life of these individuals through providing appropriate medical care and introducing effective methods for reducing the effect of these exposures.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/eco.2017.0011

pdf: Link:  eco.2017.0011

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