Research

Project Title:
Case control study of cancer incidence in early childhood and proximity to mobile phone base stations

Expected Start Date:
April 2003

Expected Date of Completion:
July 2006

Cost:
£247,000

Principal Investigator:
Professor Paul Elliot

Contact Details:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
Norfolk Place
London W2 1PG

Project Team:
Professor Paul Elliott,
Dr Nicola Grace Best
Professor David Briggs
Dr Mark Little

Expertise:

The main areas of expertise include environmental epidemiology & small-area health statistics. Major programmes include the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU) and the EU-funded European Health and Environment Information System (EUROHEIS) for Disease and Exposure Mapping and Risk Assessment. The Imperial College group has considerable experience in designing and running large-scale national environment and health-related studies and is also involved in the MTHR programme studying possible health effects associated with mobile phone use (the Cohort study of mobile phone users).

Approach:

This study proposes to investigate risk of early childhood cancers (and in particular leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL)) among the population residing near mobile phone base stations. A case control approach will be used whereby the residential locations (with respect to mobile phone base stations) of children with cancer (cases) are compared to those without cancer (controls) in England and Wales. The rationale for this approach is several-fold: the Stewart inquiry made specific reference to childhood cancers, since children may be more susceptible with short latency, higher absorption (and early clinical effects); and young children (<5 years) are likely to spend most of their time in or near the home. In addition, there will be no direct exposure to mobile phones amongst this age group (in comparison with older children and other age groups).

Potential Difficulties:

Working out the potential exposure of both cases and controls to radiofrequency (RF) emissions from mobile phone base stations (which in any case are thought to be low) is especially complex. In interpreting the findings, various factors need to be taken into consideration such as the effect of urban topography in signal reflection/interception, and other sources of radiation (e.g. background ionizing radiation and other sources of RF radiation).

Importance:

The Stewart Report has highlighted both public concern and scientific uncertainty regarding possible health effects of mobile telephony, including base stations. In particular, residential proximity to mobile phone base stations is an aspect of mobile phone technology that generates high public concern (Stewart report, p 24). While levels of RF radiation associated with mobile phone base stations are, as noted above, thought to be low (and in some circumstances may be indistinguishable from background), the Stewart Report noted that “the possibility of harm from (base station) exposures insufficient to cause important heating effects of tissues cannot yet be ruled out with confidence..” The study will determine whether or not childhood cancer cases occur more commonly near mobile phone base stations than would be expected from the national distribution of births, but of itself it will not be able to say whether any excess risk near mobile phone base stations is causally linked to base station emissions.