The INTERPHONE study: design, epidemiological methods, and description of the study population

Abstract

The very rapid worldwide increase in mobile phone use in the last decade has generated considerable interest in the possible health effects of exposure to radio frequency (RF) fields. A multinational case-control study, INTERPHONE, was set-up to investigate whether mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer and, more specifiBaruch Modan is deceased. 123Eur J Epidemiol (2007) 22: 647-664 DOI 10.1007/s10654-007-9152-z cally, whether the RF fields emitted by mobile phones are carcinogenic. The study focused on tumours arising in the tissues most exposed to RF fields from mobile phones: glioma, meningioma, acoustic neurinoma and parotid gland tumours. In addition to a detailed history of mobile phone use, information was collected on a number of known and potential risk factors for these tumours. The study was conducted in 13 countries. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the UK using a common core protocol. This paper describes the study design and methods and the main characteristics of the study population. INTERPHONE is the largest case-control study to date investigating risks related to mobile phone use and to other potential risk factors for the tumours of interest and includes 2,765 glioma, 2,425 meningioma, 1,121 acoustic neurinoma, 109 malignant parotid gland tumour cases and 7,658 controls. Particular attention was paid to estimating the amount and direction of potential recall and participation biases and their impact on the study results.

Mobile telephone use is associated with changes in cognitive function in young adolescents

“…Questionnaires were completed by participating children and their parents. Exposure to mobile telephones was assessed with a modified version of the Interphone questionnaire [Cardis et al, 2007]. The relevant questions are given in the Appendix.…”

Occupational exposure to metals and risk of meningioma: a multinational case-control study

“…Detailed study methods have been published elsewhere [15]. Incident cases of primary meningioma were recruited between 2000 and 2004.…”

“…In all centers, controls were randomly selected and originally either frequency-or individually-matched to cases by sex and year of birth (15,23). According to the INTEROCC study protocol and in order to maximize statistical power all available controls in the participating INTERPHONE countries (including those collected for other tumors), were used here.…”

“…The large-scale INTEROCC consortium, including 1,906 meningioma cases and 5,565 controls, provided a unique opportunity to study the possible association between specific occupational exposures and meningioma risk [15,16]. Occupational exposure to solvents, metals, and a number of other chemicals (including oils and dusts) was assessed on the basis of a job-exposure matrix applied to occupational histories [17].…”

“Dirty electricity”: what, where, and should we care?

“…Given that most people nowadays are routinely exposed to EMF, this would however imply that potentially large numbers of people could suffer from adverse health effects or diminished wellbeing related to EMF exposure. Large research consortia, such as for example the INTERPHONE study (Cardis et al, 2007), have been initiated to address public concern regarding effects of EMF. In their shadow, smaller studies are being conducted, some of which providing a novel approach to the question of how exposure to EMF could affect human beings and why results from most environmental studies remain spurious.…”